Kaibutsu Pretty Cure
by ThePriestess
Summary: Lucy is a zombie who just so happens to be the body of an all-powerful witch, and now she's been bestowed Precure powers to save her world from another, evil, all-powerful witch. First she must recruit four other monsters to join her side, in the hopes her magic will be strong enough to face off against Rosabell, whose got sinister plans now she's the only witch left in the world.
1. Dead Witch Walking

**Dead Witch Walking**

"What's my name?"

She stared at him for a moment, then answered confidently: "Jimmy. No, wait, James… Joe.. No, it's definitely Jimmy. Right?"

Jimmy nodded, though he couldn't keep the worry off his face. She'd never forgotten his name before.

"Well, she did get it, in the end," offered his sister, Gwen, who sat next to him. He supposed that was true.

"Do you remember who you are? Not just your name, but who _you_ are as a person."

She didn't have to think about that one. "My name is Lucy, I'm a zombie and I live over there!" she pointed at a block of flats in the distance. "I think I'm about eighteen, but I'm not sure. And you guys are my best friends!" She grinned at Jimmy and Gwen. Her skin was a pale green and her eyes were not as vividly alive as they would be on a normal person, but Lucy had the whitest, straightest teeth Jimmy had ever seen. They looked strong enough to bite through solid wood, but as much as he had wondered about it, he thought actually putting it to the test would be crude.

So for now he just returned the smile.

"That's good. As long as you don't forget that, I think everything should be fine." Once Lucy started forgetting who she was, it would be over. She was slowly losing more and more of her knowledge, but she still had her self awareness. He didn't like to think of her shambling along with the other, mindless zombies Old Town was inhabited by.

Gwen had found Lucy about a month ago, while scavenging around Old Town. Zombies are not a strange sight in Old Town, but ones that talk and walk upright are. She had seemed absolutely lost, but very much lucid. She remembered her name was something like "Luce" so they'd dubbed her "Lucy" and she had been happy with that. Her hair was golden blond and reached just past her knees, it would've been beautiful if it hadn't been so awfully tangled. Gwen had cut it for her after a few days as Lucy was prone to sitting on it and it matted almost as badly as a werewolf's pelt in some places. So now her hair was a bit past shoulder length, and she usually wore it up in a ponytail with a white ribbon that Governess, their mother, had given her.

When Jimmy had asked her where she came from, she didn't know. She also didn't know how she became a zombie, as she didn't have any bite marks. She lived in a room in the apartment building at the edge of old town, but she couldn't remember her landlord or how she paid for the room. She explained that she was just going about her business until she suddenly realised she didn't know why she was doing the things she was doing, and then she couldn't go back to her old routine.

It was like she'd awoken from her zombie trance. Gwen and Jimmy had observed the inhabitants of Old Town before, and noticed some of them did appear to have some logic to their shambling; some of them carried suitcases and went into office buildings, and there were school children hanging around the gates of the abandoned school. But they didn't speak, and their eyes were vacant; they didn't know why they did the things they did.

It's what had set Lucy apart and why the two of them had developed a kind of sibling-like bond with her. They'd placed notes around the town to help Lucy remember where she was and what her purpose was, and every day they would visit her and try to jog her memory.

Still, it had been deteriorating, and since last week it had been going fast. When she doubted if she got Jimmy's name right, his heart broke a little. It was one of the few things she'd never forgotten, along with Gwen's name and her own.

"You're still at it?" A familiar voice behind him made Jimmy cringe, he'd grown to loathe its judgemental and bored drawl.

"Griff! It's you!" Gwen jumped up and ran over to the owner of the voice, an ashen skinned boy who shrunk away a little as Gwen approached him.

"Oh yes, I remember Griff," Lucy said hopefully, and looked at Jimmy.

"I wish I didn't," Jimmy grumbled. Griff was there every day when they practiced with Lucy. Jimmy didn't know why he showed up, as all he seemed to do was insult their efforts, but he'd be there without fail. Maybe he liked Gwen more than he let on.

Gwen was fascinated with Griff, and when she was interested in a person, she wouldn't hide it. Whether it was a shallow crush or if she was serious was harder to tell, though. But seeing Griff get uncomfortable at having a werewolf in his personal space made up for his presence, a little, Jimmy felt.

"I see she's forgotten who you are. Why don't you give up already?" Griff continued.

"She didn't forget!" Gwen cried. "She just had to think for a second. Gosh Griff, you're such a downer. I bet a smile would really suit that handsome face of yours." Griff returned Gwen's smile with an expression made of stone.

"All I'm saying is that you're hurting yourself with this. All your effort is going to be for naught in a couple of days, hell, maybe even tomorrow, and you'll have to deal with that loss. Why not say goodbye now, when she's at least still a little lucid."

"Get out, Griff." Jimmy jumped up. He strode towards Griff, who didn't budge, and Gwen quickly got between the two of them.

"She's not going to forget," she said over her shoulder to Griff as she tried to keep her brother at bay. "If we keep helping her she'll be okay."

"What's it to you, anyway?" Jimmy hissed. He heard Lucy get up behind him.

"I'm not going to be gone tomorrow," she said in a small voice. "I remember myself, and I remember my friends and you, too." An uncertain smile formed on her lips. Jimmy didn't understand how she wasn't mad at Griff. He was ready to punch him. Gwen was glaring at him.

Griff moved back a pace. "I wouldn't be so sure," he said, in a slightly higher voice than before, "because you said the exact same thing yesterday." Then he turned and hurried off.

"He thinks he's so cool with his insults and his superior tone but look at him," Jimmy angrily gestured, "he's practically running with his tail between his legs."

"Maybe that's because you were about to jump him?" Gwen proposed, sounding slightly ticked off.

"I should have! All he does is antagonize us, and he makes Lucy feel bad."

Gwen looked at Lucy, who looked a little puzzled.

"I… I don't really mind," she said. "He's not really nice but I don't remember half the things he says after he's said them anyway, and I like the company. I only have four people I can talk to, and I barely ever see Governess, so…"

Jimmy sighed. "I'm sorry for getting so worked up. But the things he says… They're just not right." He turned to Gwen. "And you should stop defending him just because you think he's hot!"

Gwen shook her head fervently but didn't say anything. Clearly she felt "because he is hot" was an adequate enough reason to do a lot of things.

* * *

They walked Lucy home, as they usually did. Lucy mentioned she liked some flowers that were growing out of a wall near her apartment complex. She'd been pointing them out without fail for two weeks now. Jimmy knew he should feel bad that she couldn't remember the flowers for longer than a couple of hours, but seeing her face light up every time she noticed them filled his heart with warmth.

"Do you want to come in?" She asked when they were in front of the building. Gwen and Jimmy looked at each other. They'd never seen the inside of it before.

"Do you not remember which floor you live on?" Gwen asked. Lucy shook her head.

"I remember. But I thought it might be nice for you to see. It's kind of empty, but you've invited me into your home, so I feel like you should see mine, too."

"That makes sense," Gwen said amicably. "Let's see your super cool awesome room, then!"

The building was much as you might expect, with many doors and stairs. The biggest difference between it and a normal apartment building was that some of the doors were open and you could see the inhabitants inside, staring at a television or rummaging around in their kitchen. They looked a little frightening with their sallow, greenish skin, but Gwen and Jimmy knew they were safe. Zombies were known to only attack humans, not werewolves or other monsters.

Lucy's room was on the second floor, room 217. She had actually locked her door, unlike many of the other inhabitants, and, like she'd warned them, the room was rather bare.

One thing immediately grabbed Gwen's attention, however. A brilliant blue light shone from around the corner, in the bedroom. There was something highly unnatural about it; this wasn't a lamp or a television left on, this had to be something magical.

"What is that?" she asked in wonder. She tried to run towards it, past Lucy, but Jimmy grabbed her arm and stopped her. "Manners," he said gently. Gwen had a tendency to forget all etiquette if something caught her interest, like strange lights, or Griff.

"Oh, that," Lucy said, and she beckoned them to follow her into the room.

"I'm not sure where I got it, it's always been there," she explained as her friends stared at the source of the light in amazement. "I can't talk to it but the light it gives off makes this place feel a lot more homely, don't you think?"

They were looking at what was unmistakably a fairy in a cage. She was sitting on the floor of the cage and had been staring down until she noticed Gwen and Jimmy. She had gotten up and put her hands against the cage, which appeared to be made of some sort of glass. Her skin was a deep blue and speckled with little lights; she looked like a small galaxy was trapped inside of her.

"Lucy, that's a living thing, you can't keep her in a cage!" Gwen cried. Lucy looked surprised.

"Really? She's been in there since I can remember. I haven't fed her or anything and she looks fine to me." Gwen gasped in disgust.

"You have to let her out." She made a grab for the cage but quickly corrected herself and reshaped her clawed hand into angrily pointing at it with her index finger.

"I didn't mean to hurt her," Lucy said in a small voice. "I just never thought about it."

"That's okay, we understand," Jimmy said as he threw a ticked off look at his sister. "But Gwen's right, you should let her out." Lucy nodded, and with a guilty face she picked up the cage and fumbled open the door.

When she opened it, the fairy flew out with amazing speed, her wings moving so fast they emitted a faint buzzing noise. Before anyone could do anything, she went out the open window, and she was gone, a trail of sparkles like miniature stars fizzling out in her wake.

"Aw, now my room looks really drab," Lucy lamented. She looked at the cage, and then shrugged. "But the cage by itself is also pretty good decoration, I guess." She put it back down. Gwen went up to the window to see if she could find a trace of the fairy. She expected not, even though the town being shrouded in an eternal night might help with spotting a glowing creature.

"You really can't remember where you got that fairy?" Jimmy asked Lucy. "They're incredibly rare, and they don't even live in our country. You'd have to go abroad to get one of those." Lucy shook her head. "I really wish I knew how I got her."

"Um, guys?" Gwen called from the window. "I think that fairy wants us to follow her."

She turned around to look at them. "Because she's at the end of the street and I swear she's waving at me."

* * *

When they got to the end of the street, the fairy flew away from them again, but after a few metres she turned around to check if they were following her.

She led them to the edge of town, through the farmlands, and into a small isolated forest just on the edge of the next town over. It was quite a walk, and Gwen and Jimmy were tired. Lucy, being a corpse, was not. "What do you want us to see," she asked the fairy, who was now flying back and forth between the trees.

Lucy looked confused, but then realisation seemed to wash over her face. "Oh, I know this place. I climbed out of the ground here." She pointed at a spot of disturbed leaves.

"So someone buried you?" Gwen asked. "Does that mean…" she stopped herself and stared at the spot, her brows tightly knit together.

The fairy was now angrily rustling the leaves in the spot itself.

"There's nothing there anymore," Lucy said. "It was just me down there. I'm pretty sure, at least." Before anyone could say anything else, something poked out of the ground.

But it didn't disturb the leaves. As it rose up further and further, much to the fairy's joy, they noted the being had a faint glow and was partly transparent…

"It's a ghost!" Gwen exclaimed unnecessarily.

The ghost stretched. She was now fully out of the ground, her feet firmly planted between the leaves. She had long, golden hair and her eyes had stars in them. It reminded Jimmy a little bit of the fairy, except the ghost's eyes were pink. She looked around.

"Goodness, when did this happen?"

She sounded just like Lucy. In fact, she looked just like Lucy too, before they cut her hair, though Lucy had dull grey eyes, with no stars in them.

"Are you… Her soul?" Jimmy pointed at Lucy. Lucy grinned at the ghost.

"I'm Lucy, nice to meet you! Were you buried here, too?"

The ghost seemed to recognise her instantly. "You're me! But… How?"

The fairy made some undecipherable noises, and the ghost nodded as she listened. Then she sighed. "It's so much like her to do something like this." She stomped her foot. "Me losing wasn't enough for her, no, she had to go and reanimate my body. Ugh, she's so petty!"

Jimmy and Gwen looked at each other in confusion. "Um, who are you talking about? Or… what?" Jimmy asked carefully.

"I lost the game!" The ghost pouted, like Jimmy should know what she was talking about. "I played a game with Rosabell and I guess I lost, so now I'm dead, and you're…" she looked at Lucy and tried to find the right words. "You're just some _thing_ she made to humiliate me further. Don't get me wrong," she held up her hands defensively when Gwen and Jimmy took offense, "I don't have anything against you, but put yourself in my shoes. You're a brilliant witch with more power than anyone on this planet, and then your 'best friend' turns you into a zombie. A drooly creature that can only stumble around and moan a bit, with no mind of its own. Just so she can laugh at me! ...You, I mean." The ghost looked for approval, but nobody said anything.

"I don't drool," Lucy said after a moment.

"She's not mindless," said Jimmy. "She might have the body of a zombie, but…" he looked at Lucy, who looked back at him with interest. "I think she still has a soul. Or a heart, at least." He scratched a fuzzy cheek. "B-but anyway, I don't like how you're insulting her, whether she's you or not. It's really rude."

The ghost looked back at him with slightly raised brows. Then she turned to Lucy again.

"Our name is Marlucy. But I guess you remembered that."

Lucy clapped her hands excitedly. "Oh yeah, that was it! I knew it was something with Lucy in it."

"If Rosabell won our game, that's bad news." A shadow fell over Marlucy's face. "She's as powerful as I am, though I guess considering she beat me, she's stronger… But I can't do anything like this. I can feel my presence from this plane is fading already."

The fairy clapped her hands to her face. Marlucy said something reassuring to her, but she started crying regardless. Her tears were like silver. It was unlike anything the werewolves and Lucy had ever seen.

"She's not going to stop at my death," Marlucy continued. "She's always wanted to control this world. I might be gone but I think you can stop her! You are part of me, after all."

Lucy's eyes went wide. "But I don't know how to do that! I don't even know who Rosabell is! And I don't have any powers, I… I can barely remember my own name!"

Marlucy held up her hands, as if trying to quell Lucy's fears. "I know, but I think I can fix that. But we don't have much time left."

She took a step towards Lucy. "I'm going to try something. If it works, we'll be one again for a bit. But only for a little bit, then you'll go back to being Lucy alone. I can't do much in this form, I've been dead for too long, but I can fix one of Rosabell's mistakes, and I can help you well on your way to fixing the rest, too." The stars in her eyes shone brightly, and she looked very serious. "Do you trust me?"

"Yes," Lucy said, and Marlucy stepped into the same spot she was occupying.

For a moment the small forest was engulfed with a bright light, then it shrank to an aura around Marlucy. She wasn't transparent anymore, and her hair was now shorter, like Lucy's.

"There's something I need to do, feel free to follow me, but don't get too close," she said to the werewolves and the fairy.

As they were walking, Marlucy talked to Lucy. They were like two sets of consciousness in one body, though Lucy now had no control.

 _I will bring Old Town back to how it used to be_ , Marlucy said _, and I will leave you my powers. Do you remember the Pretty Cure?_ No, answered Lucy. Lucy didn't remember anything from before her climb out of the ground, and even most of the things after she had since forgotten.

 _They're a legend where I'm originally from,_ Marlucy explained. _They're defenders of good, and only the strongest magical beings can grant their powers onto people. I can give you their powers, you and four others. But you have to choose carefully who you'll grant these powers to._ Marlucy tapped the pocket on their dungarees. Lucy felt they were suddenly heavy with something. _There are five gems. One of them is yours. You'll know when someone is fit to become a Cure, the gems will change. Five heads are better than one. I believe your powers can grow beyond a fifth of my power, and you'll be able to defeat Rosabell._ How will I find them, asked Lucy. But Marlucy shook her head. They'd arrived at Old Town, and there wasn't enough time for everything to be explained.

Jimmy, Gwen and the fairy had followed closely behind. Flowers had grown wherever Marlucy had put down her feet. The shade of night seemed to lift wherever she went. The fairy was still crying. They couldn't talk to her, so they didn't know how to console her except for giving her sympathetic looks.

They were now standing on top of the hill overlooking Old Town. "Please give me some space," Marlucy said. They stood off to the side a little.

Marlucy's outfit changed, her striped dungarees transformed into a brilliant gown in all the colours of dawn, stars glimmered whenever she moved. Her ponytail had come undone and she was now wearing a giant pink witch's hat. It was adorned with a large brooch in the shape of a star. She wore a cape around her shoulders, and her hands were covered by gloves. In her left hand she held a wand. She wore small boots with stars on the side, and socks that reached up to her thighs. Her face was very much Lucy's, but everything else had changed dramatically.

Marlucy held up her wand and said an incantation. A cloud as bright as sunlight sprang forth out of her wand and grew faster and faster. It spread out over Old Town and started to descend like a fine mist. When it came low enough to touch it inhabitants, here and there voices could be heard uttering surprise and shock.

Gwen and Jimmy looked on, their mouths open in astonishment. The fairy was cheering for Marlucy.

 _They will have their lives back now_ , Marlucy said to Lucy. _And you know how to use my wand. Be aware you won't be able to do feats as big as this all by yourself. But if you gather your friends and keep doing good, I know you'll be able to achieve anything._ But what if I forget, Lucy asked in a panic. She'd just seen so many new things to take in, she wasn't even sure if she still remembered all of it. _You won't forget,_ Marlucy said. _I've stopped the deterioration of our body. You won't lose your mind any further. You'll only be a zombie in the sense that you won't breathe and your heart isn't beating, but other than that you are very much human._

"They're not zombies anymore," Gwen shouted and she pointed at the people in the town below them. "Marlucy, how did you-" but when Gwen looked over she saw Marlucy was gone. In her place was a very bewildered looking Lucy, who did not glow and who did not have flowers going around her feet. She was holding something in her hands.

"Are you alright?" Jimmy went over to her.

"I think so," said Lucy. she was holding five gems, two of them shining dully.

"You just turned all of those people back to normal!"

Lucy shook her head. "Marlucy did that. I can't do that. I'm just the corpse she left behind, I… I have no idea what to do."

Jimmy was a little startled. He'd never heard Lucy be so somber. "What are those rocks?" he said, not knowing what else to say.

"They belong to the Pretty Cure," Lucy said. "Marlucy told me. They're legendary fighters and they will save this world." Jimmy frowned.

"Save it? From what?"

Lucy's expression went dark. "There's a witch in this world, and she has bad intentions. She killed Marlucy, and she turned everyone in Old Town into zombies. That's why Marlucy turned them back. But if I don't stop her, she'll do more bad things." She clenched her fist tightly around the gems. "I have to find the other Pretty Cure, though I… I don't know how. But I will do my best!"

That sounded more like the Lucy he knew. He felt a little relieved, though the whole thing about their world being in grave danger worried him. He'd never noticed anything being spectacularly off, except maybe…

"Does… Does that mean you can fix the time?" He looked up at the sky. For as long as he'd known their world had been shrouded in the night. For some inhabitants this had been a virtue (mainly the vampires), but for others, like him, eternal night posed a problem. They had to deal with twice as many full moons, for one.

Lucy also looked up. "I hope I can, eventually. When I've found the others."

They looked back to Gwen and saw she was trying to console the fairy, who seemed to be beside herself with either grief or anger, it was hard to tell which. She frantically flew up and down, swinging her tiny fists through the air and shaking her head.

"I'm sorry Marlucy left you behind," Lucy said as she walked over. The fairy stopped thrashing. "She asked me to take care of you. I hope you're okay with that! And… I'm sorry about the cage. I really didn't know any better…"

The fairy flew over to her and said something. When Lucy shook her head to indicate she didn't know what she was saying, she sighed.

"Your name is Nova, right?" Lucy held out her index finger. "It's nice to properly meet you."

Nova took her finger in both hands and shook it with some effort. She still looked sad, but she had calmed down a little bit.

"It might be tough to communicate when we don't share a language but I think we'll figure something out," Lucy said.

"I think she can understand you," Gwen said. "When I was talking to her, she responded to what I was saying, even though I couldn't tell what she was saying." Lucy looked at Nova, and she nodded.

Beneath them, the zombies-turned-humans were congregating.

"Should we go talk to them?" Jimmy looked at the others. Lucy was already on her way over there before they'd made their decision.

* * *

Old Town instantly felt less eerie now the zombies were gone. Its citizens were slightly puzzled, most of them not remembering their time as zombies, but the fact that they remembered who they were before Rosabell changed them helped the town get back into gear relatively fast. Initially people had been afraid of Lucy, who was now the only person left with green skin, but when she explained to them who she was they grew hopeful.

"Can you make it day again," someone asked. Lucy explained again that she wasn't strong enough to do that yet, but she would do her best to change it as soon as she was.

"Will you protect us from the monsters?" Lucy didn't know what to say to that.

"We're humans," the person continued, "and everyone else… We're kind of prey to them, you know. Vampires, werewolves…"

"I'll have you know we have a very strict lockdown policy when there's a full moon!" Jimmy interjected angrily.

"I'll protect you," Lucy said. "I might not know many things, and I might be weak right now, but I'll do anything to protect you." And considering the feat everyone had seen her perform that day, that was a reassuring gesture. Nova cheered for her as she spoke.

* * *

Eventually it came time to go home, which considering the lack of daylight, meant for most people the moment they felt tired. To Lucy's surprise she felt herself get tired as well. She said goodbye to Jimmy and Gwen, and went on her way home.

Despite the renewed life in town, the way home was very quiet. Lucy wondered if it would always be like this and felt a little let down; the atmosphere was very eerie.

And then, as if she came out of nowhere, a witch stood in front of her. She was level with Lucy, but she had such a strong aura of resentment around her that Lucy felt small in her presence. She looked as impressive as Marlucy had, like the night manifested in human form, two crescent moons glimmered faintly in her pale eyes. "Rosa-" But Lucy didn't get to finish her sentence, as Rosabell punched her to the ground.

This was such a mundane act of rage that Lucy was too stunned to react. She tried to get up but as she moved her arm Rosabell kicked it out from under her and when she fell on her side the pointed toe of a boot kicked the air out of her. She felt like a fish out of water gasping for air; what the hell was going on?!

"Despicable," Rosabell hissed. Her voice was low and trembled with rage. "I beat you," she went on as she dug her heel into the hand Lucy was trying to protect her face with. "You disgusting cheater! I'm not losing to your corpse!" She punctuated every word with a kick. Lucy was scared of Rosabell's rage; she'd never even met her before. She was thankful she couldn't feel any pain, though it might be better if Rosabell didn't know that.

She heard Nova shout at Rosabell, trying to get her to stop abusing Lucy. She heard a muffled "thump", as if someone caught a ball mid-air, and Nova stopped shouting. Rosabell stopped kicking. _What's happening?_ Lucy thought.

Her stomach sank when she peeked through her fingers and saw Rosabell was holding Nova in a clenched fist. Nova's face was contorted in an expression of pain, but she couldn't make any sound.

"No!" Lucy shouted and got up. Her ribs felt weird and there was an unnatural amount of pressure on one of her eyes, but she didn't care. As if by instinct she grabbed the pink gem from her pocket and clenched it in her fist. "Let her go," she demanded.

Rosabell looked at her with nothing but contempt. Her fist trembled lightly.

"Stop it!"

Suddenly a pink light burst forth from Lucy's hand and engulfed the entire alleyway.

It was like she was briefly transported to another dimension.

Once again she changed form. Her hair grew long and turned white, the white bow in her hair became a deep burgundy and resembled bunny ears. The gem in her hand attached to her throat with a bow of the same colour.

Her shirt and dungarees were replaced by a dress; a white top, a corset and a skirt with a bright pink pattern on it that strongly resembled the coils on a brain. Her trainers were replaced with a pair of deep pink boots, tied with a pink ribbon. Her hands were now gloved, with tiny pink bows on her wrists.

Her eyes turned pink, not unlike Marlucy's eyes, but the center was a vivid blue. She grinned as she felt she could take on the whole world now, whether that was true or not in this moment did not matter.

"I'll take a bite out of anyone who gets in my way! Cure Cortex!" she shouted when the lights faded. Even though it had felt to her like she'd been gone for several minutes, to Rosabell and Nova her transformation into Cure Cortex had only taken a second.

"Pathetic," Rosabell spat, and she threw Nova at Cortex as if she was little more than a filthy dishrag. She hit her in the chest and Cortex had to hold up her hands to catch her, as Nova no longer tried to fly.

"You're just a stupid corpse," Rosabell went on, apparently not even a little impressed with the lightshow said corpse just performed. "A stupid corpse that used to be my rival. A rival who refuses to accept she lost." She took a step closer to Cortex. "You won't stop me. I don't care who you think you are, but you can't stop me. If you're smart you'll curl up somewhere and stay dead, like you belong."

With that Rosabell disappeared, as if she'd never been there in the first place.

But evidently she had, as Cortex still had broken ribs and a swollen eye socket, and Nova was a small crumpled heap in her hands. Cortex could see she was breathing, but she looked bad. Her wings were bent at odd angles, and the stars inside of her body were dim, some of them flickering, threatening to go out.

 _What do I do?_ Cortex asked herself. She was at a loss… Then she noticed a faint pink glow on Nova and her hands. It came from the gem on her choker. _Wait, I can do magic, can't I?_ Cortex thought to herself. _If I can transform out of nowhere, maybe I can do magic out of nowhere, too_ , she thought, and she closed her eyes, trying to concentrate. _I need to help Nova,_ she told herself. _I need to help Nova._

 _I have a wand_ , she realized. _I just need to take it out_. She carefully placed Nova on a nearby windowsill. Nova gasped feebly.

Cortex moved her hand in an elegant motion towards the gem on her choker, and produced a wand out of thin air. It was Marlucy's wand, though it looked a little more simple than when Marlucy had used it. Cortex knew exactly the words to say to get it to work.

"Pretty Cure! Lux Stellae Praesens, heal my friend!" She pointed the wand at Nova. Her wings instantly straightened themselves out, and slowly but surely the galaxies inside her body began to shine more brightly again. Her expression went from strained to peaceful, and now she slept a tranquil sleep. Cortex breathed a sigh of relief.

She turned back into Lucy. Then she picked Nova up and hurried home. Today had been the most eventful day of her entire life, though who knows, that might be in part because she couldn't remember most of her life.

* * *

"So you beat the crap out of Marlucy's corpse, huh," Griff said as he played with the cuff of his sleeve.

"Why yes, I did," Rosabell said. They were in the cathedral up the hill, ways away from Old Town. This was where the vampires lived.

Griff could think of several disdainful things to say about his mistress' behaviour, but he knew better than that. So he just stood to attention as she paced around the room, his deep red eyes focused on the floor in front of him.

"I used _everything_ to beat her. And then she does this! She's a filthy cheater."

"So she is," noted Griff.

Rosabell took a deep breath and quickly breathed out in an attempt to calm herself. Almost squeezing Nova to death had done a pretty good job calming most of her rage but it was always tough to expel that last bit of it. Marlucy's corpse turning into a Pretty Cure didn't help matters.

"She's weak, now. She's at a sliver of the power Marlucy had, and she's not Marlucy; she's never going to get that power back. I'll be at full strength long before then."

Killing her adversary had taken a lot out of her. If Rosabell had to take a guess she'd say she was about a tenth of the strength she normally was, making her even weaker than Marlucy's leftovers. Luckily she had some tricks left up her sleeve. That had always been her strength over Marlucy; Rosabell plotted and schemed while Marlucy just did whatever she pleased. Chaos, in the end, will always lose to order.

"She's got those werewolf friends," Griff said.

Rosabell scoffed. "They're nothing. If she thinks they will help her fight me, she's truly brainless. I told you, Griff, I've got some of my powers left."

"What's your plan?"

"I've shrouded this world in eternal night. I can condemn it to an eternal full moon, if I want to. And I'd like to see that zombie figure things out all on her own when her friends are locked away inside their house like the rabid dogs they are."


	2. Them!

_2\. Them!_

When Lucy woke up the next morning she felt something cold weighing down her left eyebrow.

When she opened her eyes she saw a blue blur that with a few blinks turned into Nova holding an ice pack on her eye.

When she saw Lucy had awoken she let go of the ice pack with one of her small hands to wave. Lucy saw a cluster of stars gathered on her palm.

"Good morning, Nova," she said and sat up, supporting the ice pack with her own hand.

"What a day we had yesterday, huh?" She heard something rattling on the floor as she shifted her weight. It was a towel that had been resting on her midriff, stuffed with ice cubes. Nova zipped to the floor in a hurry and picked up one of the ice cubes and placed it back on the towel. She went to get a second one and dropped it with less finesse than the first one, then aggressively rubbed her hands together and blew air on them with a pained expression on her face.

"That's so nice of you!" Lucy exclaimed. "You shouldn't have." She put the ice pack on her nightstand and felt her eye. It didn't feel swollen anymore. She would have to get up and move around to check how her ribs felt, but the bruising from the night before had significantly lessened. She wondered if she healed faster than normal people; she was the body of a witch, and it didn't seem that far-fetched to her that Marlucy would have enchanted herself to be stronger than a non-magical person.

Nova went for her third attempt to pick up an ice cube but Lucy quickly stopped her. "It's alright! I think I'm okay now. And I don't want you to freeze your hands off." Nova looked relieved.

Lucy swung her legs over the edge of the bed and looked around. _I really need to make this place look more like a home_ , she thought to herself. The apartment had nothing in it aside from the bare essentials. Now that everyone inside of Old Town was alive again maybe the shops would open again, Lucy thought. She didn't have any recollection of them ever being open, as she technically didn't exist before Marlucy died, but being Marlucy's body had given her some knowledge that just "made sense" to her.

Kids go to school, adults go to work, in your free time you relax or spend time with friends... Her stomach growled. You go to the shops to get food. Another place where you can find food is the fridge, Lucy knew.

But the one in her apartment was empty. Zombies didn't eat normal human food. They got food from the inhabitants of the next town over, who were all monsters. Lucy wondered if they'd ever thanked them for that.

What was it that they gave them to eat anyway? As she sat there thinking Nova cleaned up the ice cubes by folding them into the towel and emptying the towel into the sink.

"Are you hungry?" Lucy asked from the bedroom. Nova rubbed her belly and nodded bashfully.

"Do you want to see if the monsters are there, with the food carts?"

Nova shook her head and frantically flailed her arms, crossing them several times; she most definitely did not want to do that.

Lucy got up from the bed and walked over to her. "It's that bad? I can't remember what it tastes like at all. I don't think I was really thinking when I ate anyway." Nova pointed at Lucy, then at her mouth, and then made another cross sign. Lucy frowned.

"I shouldn't eat it either? Why not?"

Nova rolled up her eyes and stretched her arms in front of her, her hands dangling limply. Lucy gathered she was doing a zombie impression. Then she pretended to eat something. Then she pointed at her head.

She pointed more animatedly at her head when Lucy just gave her a blank stare. Then it hit her. "THEY WERE BRAINS!"

Nova nodded.

"Of course they were brains," Lucy continued. She held her hand in front of her mouth in horror, though she didn't sound horror struck. After all, it just made sense. Zombies ate brains. She found it a disgusting thought now, but before she didn't care. It was just food. Anything else would not sustain her, she knew. Gosh, she hoped that had changed now. If not, she might just use her Pretty Cure magic to try and change it, she thought to herself.

"Where did they get them? They weren't human, were they…?" Nova shrugged. How could she know, after all, she'd been locked up inside her cage all the time Lucy had existed.

Lucy figured she could ask when she next met the monster merchants in town. If they were hostile, she could just turn into Cure Cortex and frighten them away...She hoped.

Her stomach grumbled again. "Let's go find some shops," she said to Nova, and they headed out.

* * *

To their surprise and delight some of the shops were open. The owners had retaken their professions quickly after being returned to normal, and in some ways it was hard to tell Old Town had been a ghost town just a day ago.

Lucy and Nova loaded up on whatever looked good. Most of the things available were instant goods and preserved foods, as there were no vegetables, fruits, bread or dairy available yet.

"We're trying to get a thing going with the next town over, since we won't have any fresh crops ourselves for a while," the shop owner explained. "Zombies aren't exactly renown for their farming skills. That'll be 23.50, if you please."

Lucy instinctively tapped her pockets, which she found were flat, and then panicked. "I don't have any money," she exclaimed, and looked at Nova for help. "Do you?"

Nova made an angry chattering noise and mimed the size of a coin, roughly the size of her head, and then tapped her hips, where pockets might have been if her dress had any.

"I'll take that as a no," Lucy said.

The owner smiled at them. "That's alright Miss. I think you've done this town enough of a service to warrant you free groceries for at least a year. Maybe a lifetime." Lucy gaped at him.

"Really? Thanks mister!"

It hadn't really been her who had fixed the town, that had been Marlucy's doing, but to the shop owner that didn't make any difference. Lucy had vowed to protect the town, and that was enough payment for him.

"Maybe I could invite Gwen and Jimmy over and we could make them food, to thank them for helping us."

Nova made a wide gesture with her arms accompanied by whooshing noises.

"If I set the kitchen on fire I will undo it with my magic," Lucy laughed.

When they made it back to Lucy's apartment, they found Gwen and Jimmy in front of the building, waiting for them.

"We thought we'd come visit you now that everything's back to normal, but then you weren't home," Jimmy explained. Lucy held up the bag of groceries by way of explanation.

"We got you something!" Gwen said. She held out a box. Inside of it was a phone. It had some small scratches on the screen and sides, but it worked fine.

"It's my old phone," Gwen explained. "We thought it would be good for you to have one, so you can contact us more easily. It's already got our numbers in it! Do you know how to use it?"

Lucy effortlessly navigated to the phonebook, and saw Gwen and Jimmy were her only contacts, aside from "Mum".

"I guess I do," she said with raised eyebrows. Marlucy must have known how to use a phone, she supposed.

* * *

"Seems like everyone's picking their normal life up again pretty fast," Jimmy said after they'd gone inside. He was munching on a toaster strudel in Lucy's kitchen. He wasn't particularly hungry, especially not for a baked good that would survive a direct hit from a nuke, but Lucy had been so excited at the first thing she ever "cooked" he didn't have the heart to refuse.

"Shops are open and I saw people going into the school. I think they're trying to get that back up and running as soon as possible, though I didn't see any kids go in yet."

Gwen scoffed. "I mean, would you go back to school if you had an excuse not to? Just say you're still adjusting to being alive again and bam, you've got yourself an extra holiday." She happily accepted another toasted good Lucy offered her.

"I don't know," Jimmy said. "I think it'd be nice to go, if they would have us. We're always surrounded by werewolves at home and we're the only people of our age there. It'd be nice to be around peers more, and different people. And you could stand to expand your knowledge." He playfully punched Gwen's shoulder.

"Do you want to go," Gwen asked Lucy. Lucy turned around, holding a spoonful of honey in one hand. It was meant for Nova, and she was about to place it on a plate, but now she was stopped in her thoughts. Nova tried to catch the honey that was falling off the spoon with mixed success.

"I really don't know," Lucy concluded. "I think I need some time to think about that."

"Well," Gwen slapped her hands on her outstretched legs. "I'll base my decision on whatever you'll do. I'll go if you go."

"What if the vampires go? They've got some school aged people amongst them," Jimmy asked.

"If Griff goes I'll definitely go," Gwen said grinning.

* * *

After breakfast they went out again. Quite a lot of houses had their doors open and they had to avoid ladders here and there; people were cleaning up their houses which had fallen into disrepair during their time as zombies.

Nothing looked quite as bad as the school did, though. It had been a magnificent building at one point in time, with a large garden and sports fields around it behind a beautiful art-nouveau-esque gate protecting it all, but now it looked like a tornado had gone through it.

Most of the windows were smashed, someone had crudely spray painted a face on the front door and the large windows above it, and one half of the gates had been torn off its hinges.

The roof of the building was covered in large holes, like something had crashed into (or out of) it.

Jimmy shook his head as they walked onto the grounds and took in the damage. The hoops on the basketball field were stuffed with sports equipment. One of the boards was broken. There was a giant splash of something dark brown dried in the middle of the concrete.

"Vampires," Jimmy said through gritted teeth. "No doubt about it."

"Why would they do this?" Lucy looked at the stain in the middle of the court with some discomfort.

"Because they're dicks," Jimmy helpfully explained.

"They get bored a lot," Gwen said. "And when they get bored they go out and destroy things, or harrass people. I guess they got bored of bothering zombies, and they generally leave the other monsters alone, so… The school became their new target."

"Oh, don't worry about that," Jimmy said as he noticed Lucy's eyes were glued to the spot on the court. "They don't kill people. They get blood from the monsters, just like the zombies used to get their food from them. I guess one of them dropped his bottle. Or they did it on purpose, who knows. Point is, they're dicks, as I said."

Lucy felt a little relieved, but Jimmy also reminded her of something she had worried about earlier. "Where do the monsters get their food from?"

Jimmy scratched his cheek. "They have a lot of cattle. They don't really use the blood or the brains, so they uh… They "gift" that to others. It helps keep the peace."

"Yeah, we get our meat from them," Gwen chimed in. "We're the only ones who pay for it I think. They'd offered to just give it to us but Mum thought that wasn't fair."

Jimmy nodded. "It doesn't feel right to just get things from them and give them nothing in return. They're keeping half the country sane, they should be paid for their efforts."

The more Lucy and Gwen talked about the monsters, the more Lucy wanted to meet them. They seemed like absolutely lovely people. She wanted to do something for them, give them something back for all the kindness they'd shown her and everyone else.

A man hurried towards them. He looked neat with his shirt tucked in proper and his deep blue tie; but it was slightly thrown off by his messy dark hair and the broken lens in his glasses.

"Excuse me," he began. He was out of breath. "You are Lucy, correct? Sorry to intrude like this." He looked to be in his early to mid-twenties. Jimmy recognised him as one of the zombies who used to walk around the gate of the school, but decided not to mention this.

Lucy nodded. "Is something wrong?"

"Better ask what's not wrong," he sighed, then apologized again. "You fixed the town yesterday, right? Made us all go back to normal?"

Lucy shook her head apologetically. "That wasn't really me, sorry. But I can do a bit of magic, just not as big as what I did… What _she_ did yesterday."

"Oh," the man said. "Well, I think this isn't too big, at least I hope so. We were wondering if you could help us with the school."

He held out his hand. "How rude of me, I forgot to introduce myself. Ervin Turan. I'm a teacher here, and we want to resume lessons asap for the students, but the school is in quite a state."

"We noticed," Jimmy said.

"Will you take werewolves?" Gwen asked out of nowhere. Mr. Turan looked at her for a moment.

"I don't think we used to," he said carefully. "I'm not in charge of making that decision, I'm sorry. The headmistress is out front, you could discuss it with her."

"I'll help you with the school if you'll teach monsters!"

Everyone gaped at Lucy. "I think that's fair payment," she explained.

Mr. Turan mumbled a reiteration that he didn't have the authority to make that decision. He led them to the front of the building. Outside were a few other adults, Lucy assumed they were also teachers. They looked quite lost.

"I don't know how to transform," Lucy admitted to her friends. Nova looked very surprised, and said something.

"It just happened yesterday, I don't know how I did it," Lucy said to her. "But now I feel like I have to say something first… I just don't know what it is."

"You became a Cure yesterday?" Gwen asked. Lucy explained what had happened the day before in the alley. Gwen and Jimmy were a little worried, though Jimmy tried to hide it. He didn't think feeling scared would help Lucy with becoming Cure Cortex again.

"What if you concentrate on what you want to do," he proposed.

"Oh, yeah, maybe," Lucy said. She looked at the school and took in the damage. _I want to fix this_ , she thought. _I want Old Town to go back to how it used to be when it was alive. Even if I don't know what that looked like._

"Luc-" Gwen began when she spotted something glowing brightly on Lucy's throat, but Nova stopped her by putting her hands on Gwen's lips. Lucy needed to concentrate. The choker with the pink, heart-shaped gem materialized, and suddenly Lucy knew what to say.

"Mirabilis Cerebrum! Kaibutsu!" She was briefly enveloped in a pink light that seemed to swirl around her like a fire, and when it dissipated Cure Cortex stood in her place.

"I'll take a bite out of anyone who gets in my way! Cure Cortex!"

"Wow, that's pretty threatening," Gwen said after she was done gaping.

"You look amazing," Jimmy said. Nova clapped again.

Everyone else stared at Cortex in excitement, anxious about what she would do next. Cortex conjured her wand.

"Okay, I've only done this once before and that was a completely different situation, so I don't know if this'll work," Cortex warned them. She held out her wand in front of her. The tip glowed faintly. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She concentrated on her wish.

"Pretty Cure! Lux Stellae Praesens! Fix the school!" A glint of light passed over the school and its grounds, and then vanished. Initially it looked like nothing happened, but then it seemed like the school came to life. The windows reformed and the holes in the roof were filled up by shingles and wooden boards that regrew from their shattered remains.

The sports gear went back to its rightful place in the gym and the stain evaporated. The gate repaired itself with a loud clang which startled the gaggle of teachers.

Judging from the noises coming from inside the building, which consisted mainly of loud dragging noises of chairs on the wooden floors, the inside of the building was putting itself right as well.

The crude graffiti face melted off the front entrance, as did any other graffiti on the premises.

When everything looked right, the lights surrounding the school flickered on. So did the ones inside. The building now looked perfectly clean and whole, and looked welcoming.

"That was amazing!" One of the teachers declared.

Cortex detransformed. "I'm glad I could help," Lucy said.

* * *

"Did you see? Those zombies in Old Town, they're human again."

The dungeon was cold and dank, as always. They had tried to make it feel less like a prison, it's original purpose; it was tastefully decorated and well-lit, and the furniture was of high quality, but to Child it all felt like wasted effort. A dungeon would always be a dungeon, with no windows and that ever perseverant dampness.

Child hated the dampness the most. It made his limbs feel heavy, not to mention his head. He was prone to hunching over regardless of the level of moisture in the air but the fact he had to put in actual effort to keep his head up actively irritated him. The bugs that lived in his extremities and behind his eyes didn't seem to mind the mugginess much. If anything it seemed it made them multiply. That was yet another reason to hate it down here.

He picked at a stitch on the side of his index finger until it came loose.

"Come on, out," he said to his hand as he shook it near the floor. Dozens of pill bugs scurried out as fast as they could and fell to the floor, faking their demise as was their accustomed way of defense.

"That's disgusting, Child," someone chastised him. He looked up, still looking thoroughly irritated. "If I don't do that they'll burst out on their own eventually. You really want to see bugs crawling out of my eyes, Griff?" He smirked. Griff pulled a face of disgust.

"Where's your Lady anyway," Child asked as he sewed up his finger.

Everybody knew Griff wasn't of the same status they were. He was just a butler of sorts to a mysterious vampire duchess named Lady Lune, who apparently deemed herself too important to show up in person. She always sent Griff in her stead. It seemed this time was no different. "My Lady is preoccupied with other business," Griff explained. Child turned away from him. A creature in the shadows scoffed, and the final person in the room rolled her eyes, accompanied with a very loud "ugh".

"She has, like, no respect for us whatsoever, does she?" the eyeroller said. Her skin was purple, her hair half pink and half blue and she had three arms. She was braiding her hair with two of her arms, while the third one rested uselessly on her lap. Her knees were covered in colourful bandages. She wasn't wounded, she just liked how they looked. And people gave her sad looks when they saw the bandages, which she also liked. She'd recently started putting them on her cheeks, but this had had differing reactions.

She wasn't from this world, and didn't have a name. Her peers had become accustomed to referring to her as Coral, which she accepted begrudgingly. The person who named her said she reminded her of coral, which was a creature found in the oceans of this world, because of her horns. Coral had never seen this organism before, and she was sure she'd be very upset when confronted with it regardless of what it looked like, because the inhabitants of this planet seemed to be adept at upsetting her. She'd left her home planet in hopes of finding a more compassionate species elsewhere but clearly this place had been a mistake. She wasn't going to leave again though, oh no. She'd teach them to respect her.

"Lady Lune is preoccupied," Griff repeated.

Before Coral could object, the person who had spoken first moved out of the shadows. She moved with lightning speed despite her large body, which made a "thump" noise as she hit the floor when she dropped down from the ceiling, making Coral shriek. Child and Griff stayed stationary, though Griff did look unnerved.

Magdalene lifted her cowl, her many eyes flickering over each occupant in the room adjusting her eight legs methodically with every small motion. She was the reason they were down here. A dungeon was an ideal living space for a giant crowned orb weaver such as herself. "I asked if you noticed the changes in Old Town."

Coral said nothing.

"Nope," said Child.

"I did," Griff spoke up, his voice steel. "My Lady was rather unhappy with it."

"I don't doubt that," Magdalene said. "Lady Rosabell didn't take it very well."

Magdalene didn't ever leave the dungeon, but her eyes could see through the eyes of any spider in the land.

Griff knew, however, that she couldn't see anything Rosabell didn't want her to see. Magdalene was a powerful creature, perhaps the most powerful one in the room, but nobody was as mighty as Rosabell.

Magdalene laughed her small, feminine giggle. Rosabell would burn the dungeon with her inside if she ever saw she was being ridiculed by a member of her court, Griff knew. But he only briefed her on the important things of their meetings. Magdalene would be safe from his Lady's wrath.

They'd all sing a different tune if they knew Lady Lune was actually Rosabell, he knew. He didn't quite get her strategy of keeping her identity from her court, but alas. He might be the closest companion Rosabell had, but she still kept a lot to herself. It was just how she was, he knew. Unlike Marlucy, who seemed to share everything with her familiar; that little blue fairy.

"So she's reset the playing board," Child said. He tilted his head back. "God I hate this dungeon," he groaned to himself.

"I think we've got a bigger problem than the humans being back," Griff said.

"Marlucy died but her body zombified, and it's still walking around." He looked at Magdalene. "I'm sure you saw." She gave him a small nod. "It calls itself Lucy now, and it wasn't much of a problem initially."

"Yes, Griff, we all know how you stalked your werewolf buddies to "monitor Lucy"," Child said, a grin forming on his face.

Griff disregarded his comment and continued. "Yesterday Marlucy turned the zombies back into humans and bestowed powers onto Lucy. She calls herself Cure Cortex now. She's in search for four more people to give Cure powers to."

"What a cheater! Typical witch," Coral said.

"You know Lady Rosabell is a witch too, right?" Child said, the grin still on his face.

"Shut up, you stupid bag of sand!" Coral screeched. Magdalene threw her a disdainful look. Coral was all cheer and sunshine until someone called her out on something. It made her into an awful conversational partner, and none of the other courtiers liked her much. Coral knew this, but she told herself she didn't care.

"You're a stupid bag of sand," she repeated, "you don't know what it's like to have your home taken from you like I do. I was gonna make this my paradise and then those two showed up."

"And Lady Rosabell was ever so gracious to offer you a place in her court," Griff said quickly before Coral said something truly foolish. Coral threw him a look full of hatred, tears burning in the corners of her eyes, but she shut up.

"I _am_ a stupid bag of sand," Child said. Griff could tell he was about to set Coral off, but he couldn't interfere fast enough. "And the fact that I'm aware of it is the only difference between the two of us!"

"You're the worst! You guys, he's the worst, isn't he? I can't believe you let him treat me like this!" Coral cried.

"I don't care!" Child shouted. He loved riling Coral up. Griff didn't like that about him; there was no challenge in it, Coral could be set off in the blink of an eye if you knew what to say. And there were a lot of things you could say to set her off.

"Enough!" Magdalene bellowed. She got up on her hind legs, towering over everyone else in the room, four of her legs pointed menacingly at the others. "I'm the least human person in this room and I'm the most well mannered, this is preposterous," she hissed.

"I'm sorry," Griff said. Child pulled at one of the stitched on the corners of his mouth. Coral cried.

"Thank you, Griff," Magdalene said. She got back down on eight legs. She was bitterly disappointed that the only person who apologised was the one who did nothing wrong in the first place.

Why Rosabell had appointed these two to her court she'd never understand. She knew Child was her very creation, as he was a voodoo doll she brought to life during an experiment. Magdalene knew the witches liked to experiment. Coral was made into a courtier to placate her. She'd been very upset to find she wouldn't be able to mold the planet she landed on into her personal paradise thanks to the two witches. Magdalene doubted she posed any true danger, however.

It seemed to her they'd be a lot more efficient if it was just her and Griff. Or Lady Lune, if she could ever bother to actually show up herself.

"My Lady informed me Rosabell has a plan for the werewolves Cortex hangs out with. It should stop her from recruiting any more Cures, as she's got no other acquaintances."

To Griff's relief everybody was now listening.

"She's going to create an eternal full moon. Either the werewolves will be locked up in their home as is their custom, or they will go berserk and the monsters will have to… _deal_ with them."

"Oh, I like that," said Child.

"So what do _we_ do?" Coral asked. She didn't seem to particularly care much about the plan with the werewolves. Or the whole Cure business.

"We wait, for now." Griff said.

"Oh, I love waiting," Child said. "Are we done now? I can't wait to get out of this dank prison."

* * *

Cortex and her friends spent the rest of the day exploring Old Town. Every now and then someone would run up to them and ask Cortex if she could use some of her magic to help them out with mainly very trivial problems.

Cortex happily obliged each time, until someone asked her to clear up the spots on his face and Nova took her wand off her.

"What's wrong?" Cortex asked, still transformed. Nova shook her head and chattered.

"Maybe she's saying not to use your magic for things like this?" Jimmy guessed.

"Things like what? This is a pretty serious matter, school's gonna start again soon and I wanna look good!" the spotty faced boy protested. Nova threw him an annoyed look.

"Is there a limit to my magic?" Cortex offered. She had a feeling this might be it. Nova pointed at her and nodded energetically. She handed the wand back to Cortex and tapped on it. Cortex inspected the wand, and for the first time she noticed there was a pattern engraved in it. It glowed faintly at the base but faded out to nothing as it went up. She remember how brightly the wand had shone when Marlucy had used it. Maybe it reflected how much magic she had left?

"I better save it for something important," Cortex said to herself. She de-transformed.

"Aw man," the spotty boy whined. He walked off, loudly complaining to himself.

Gwen pulled Jimmy's sleeve.

"It's getting dark, Jim. We should make our way home." She pointed at the sky.

"Already? It feels like the last one was just a week ago," he protested. "Sorry Lucy, it's that time again. We'll see you again soon."

Lucy nodded. "Please be careful," she said.

Full moon meant that Jimmy and Gwen's home, the Volta mansion, would go on what they called 'lockdown'. The entire Volta family consisted of werewolves, though most of them weren't related by blood, and were brought together by a matriarch who went by Governess who took anyone who was afflicted by the werewolf curse under her wing. Jimmy and Gwen simply referred to her as 'mum'.

Lockdown meant that the mansion would be closed off completely, no one would be allowed in, and none of the family would be allowed out. It meant the house would get ripped up badly for as long as the full moon was in the sky, and so did the family members who were prone to attacking each other, but it was the safest option they had now. The werewolves lost their human mind when they transformed and they would be a danger to anyone that would cross their path while they were in that form.

At least with them all locked up inside their house everyone would be safe, and they were strong enough to deal with each others bites and scratches. Gwen and Jimmy were covered in scars, as was most of the family. They laughed it off though, saying it was more like wolf cubs playing with each other and not an actual attempt on each others lives.

"Wait!" Lucy said as they walked off. "I want to give you something." She rummaged in her pocket and took out one of the gems, an orange one, that was glowing quite brightly.

"It's one of the Cure gems," she said, holding it in her open palm. "It glows whenever you guys are near me, so I think that means you should have it. Maybe we can be Cures together."

Her eyes sparkles a little as she said the last bit.

So did Gwen's. Jimmy was excited too, but thought for a moment and then shook his head. "No, we shouldn't do this now," he said.

"Why not?" Gwen and Lucy said in unison.

"Think about it," Jimmy said. "Gwen and I are about to lose our minds. Is now really the best time to give us the ability to do magic?"

"Aw," Gwen pouted. She stomped her foot. "I know you're right but that still really sucks. I want to be a Pretty Cure with Lucy!"

"Don't worry," Lucy said as she put the gem back in her pocket. "I'll give it to you after the lockdown is over. It won't be long!"

Gwen pumped her fists in front of her. "It'll be so cool! I can't wait. I'll think of a catch phrase in the meantime."

Lucy heard her practice phrases as her and Jimmy walked off, with incredulous responses from Jimmy. She looked at the sky and hoped time would pass fast.

* * *

On her way back home four more people came up to her to ask her for a favour. Each one of them responded more disappointed than the last when she turned them down. "You could at least fix that green skin of yours," the last man grumbled after Lucy apologised for not wanting to fix his picket fence. "You look like a creep."

Nova shook her tiny fists at him and uttered some choice words Lucy had never heard her say before, but Lucy herself didn't respond and kept walking home.

"That was really mean," she said after Nova finished her tirade. "I would've helped if I had more magic. But it being limited isn't my fault..." Nova petter her cheek.

When they got home Nova opened the fridge with much effort and tried to get out ingredients, but Lucy just sat down on her bed and stared out the window.

When Nova went to check on her she apologised. "I'm not hungry, sorry. I can open the honey for you, if you need me to."

Nova zipped back and forth between the kitchen and the bedroom and brought the jar of honey and a spoon. Lucy opened the jar and put a spoonful on the lid, which she placed open-faced in the window.

"At least you don't ask me to use my magic for silly things," she sighed. She sounded a little sad. Nova looked up at her questioningly, her face full of honey.

"I'll be okay," Lucy smiled insincerely. She looked at the moon which was now brightly shining in the sky. "But I do admit, even though I've only been alone for a few minutes I feel lonely already. It seems everyone outside of you and Jimmy and Gwen just wants me to do something for them. And..." She fumbled with her nails. "...I do wish I could talk to you. I know you know what I'm saying, but it's tough when I can't tell what you're saying." Nova nodded. She wiped her hands on her dress, got up, and flew out of the bedroom. Lucy heard her dragging something from the living room.

"Do you need a hand?" she asked. Nova reappeared in the door, near the ground, dragging a thick book that was at least twice her size across the floor.

"What's this?" Lucy picked up the book, Nova sat down on her shoulder and gestured at the it.

The cover was beautifully illustrated with flowers and stars. Marlucy's name was engraved on it in curly script. "A spellbook," Lucy mused. She sat down and rifled through it. "Did Marlucy write all this?"

Nova nodded.

"This is gonna take a while to get through," Lucy said. "Can I learn how to talk to you from this?" Nova shrugged.

"Maybe, huh," Lucy concluded.

She ended up falling asleep with the book in her lap, Nova still on her shoulder. The book was mighty interesting, with many entries on different monster species and individuals and spells for remedies and incantations, but nothing so far about Nova or her language.

She woke up again several hours later. She started when she looked at the clock. _I slept nearly ten hours! I must've been really tired._ Nova was dozing on the floor. She was kind of happy she slept so long, it would mean she would get hang out with her friends again faster.

The days drug by, and somehow a week had passed but the full moon was still hanging high in the air. "That's strange," Lucy said to herself. "I'm pretty sure it's never been out for that long."

She had been counting down the days, only going out to get groceries as every time she set foot outside people would bother her to ask her for favors. Lucy wasn't one to anger quickly, but she was growing irritable now.

She also felt extremely alone. Clearly the other citizens of Old Town did not consider her one of them, and nobody seemed to sincerely ask her "how are you" without following it up with a request right after. And she still hadn't found anything about Nova's language.

She had, however, found a summoning ritual labeled "for summoning a friend". It looked rather eerie and required Lucy to draw an intricate circular pattern on the floor, but with every passing day she felt more tempted to try it.

Nova had heavily protested when, after a week, Lucy had drawn the pattern on the floor. "Don't worry, I just wanted to see if I can replicate it," Lucy assured her.

Nova had hidden away the remaining salt when Lucy had drawn a circle with it around the pattern three days after that, but Lucy had already completed the circle before she could. "It's for good luck, actually," Lucy explained to her.

Another week passed, and Nova tried to close Marlucy's spellbook when Lucy had placed it in the middle of the pattern, open on the page with the summoning ritual on it, but the book was too heavy for her.

She yelled when Lucy pricked her finger and dripped some of her blood on the book. "It's just to check if I have the guts for it," Lucy lied.

Nova pounded her tiny fists on Lucy's head, which felt like a regular sized person was gently tapping her cranium with two fingers.

She spoke the incantation loud and clearly, sitting on her knees in front of the circle. The last word came out as a yelp however, as Nova had started pulling her hair and that had startled her.

But it was too late to stop the ritual now. The circle was empty one second, then engulfed in flames that reached the ceiling the next, like someone had poured hot oil on an open flame. Nova let go of Lucy's hair.

A figure appeared within the wall of flames, a shape with glowing yellow eyes and enormous curled horns on either side of its head. "Marlucy," it growled in a deep voice.

"Actually, it's just Lucy!" Lucy said and smiled. "Nice to meet you."


	3. Lonely Dead

Just before the summoned fire could burn a hole in the ceiling the sprinkler system turned on. The water came down with such ferocity it soaked everything within seconds and reduced the demon's fire to steam.

Lucy could now look up clearly at the being she'd summoned looming over her.

Before her stood a tall, young woman with scornful golden eyes and sleek black hair. Her skin was a pale red and she had two large horns. She was absolutely soaked, and Lucy noticed the steam wasn't coming from the floor, but from _her_.

The water finally stopped raining down when Nova fled to the valve and turned the system off. After that she hid behind Lucy's back.

"Uh, so, what's your name?" Lucy asked politely. The demon raised a small, circular eyebrow.

"Wasn't it you who trapped me in this book," she asked.

"Trapped you?" Lucy looked at the book on the floor (and now saw the demon was hovering slightly above it), "n-no, that must've been Marlucy. I'm not her, I'm just her body, you see," she tried to explain. Her legs were starting to feel prickly; an onset of pins and needles, but Lucy was afraid to move much with the demon staring her down.

"I'm just Lucy. The book said the ritual would summon a friend and I'm pretty lonely, so I thought I would try it."

The demon looked even more perturbed at that.

"Summon a friend," she said. Now she had stopped growling her voice sounded smart and refined; it was of a deeper tone and she annunciated every word perfectly.

Then she started laughing. Like her speaking voice, it sounded refined, but also slightly bitter. "She has a sense of humor, hasn't she," the demon said. Lucy didn't know what to answer.

"Well, had, I suppose. If you're her corpse I assume Marlucy is dead," she said matter of factly.

Lucy nodded.

"You still haven't told me your name," she said quietly.

"When Marlucy trapped me in this book, I went by Desdemona. I suppose it will do this time, as well."

"Desdemona," Lucy echoed. Nova peeked over Lucy's shoulder. When Desdemona shifted her gaze to look at her, she quickly hid again.

Feeling a little more comfortable now Desdemona wasn't glowering at her anymore, and now she knew her name, Lucy finally shifted her legs a little.

"So what is it that you want?" Desdemona asked. "I can grant you anything. Within limits, of course. But we'll get into that after you've told me your wish, if necessary."

Now it was Lucy who was frowning. She thought she made it pretty clear to Desdemona what she wanted, the reason was right on the page she came out of after all. "A friend," she repeated.

"Friends? Do you want everyone to instantly like you? Or are you looking for something more intimate, a soulmate perhaps? Do you want powerful friends?" Lucy got up and stepped away from the circle. She didn't really like Desdemona quite literally talking down to her, and the way she rattled off questions made it feel like she was talking to a merchant or a solicitor. Getting up helped, though Desdemona was still looking down on her ever so slightly as she was half a head taller than Lucy.

"No," Lucy said resolutely. "I just want _a_ friend. I have three, but two of them are locked away and I cant talk to the third one, and everyone else in this town just wants to use me for my magic. I just want someone to talk to, and to go to places with, and… And stuff like that."

Desdemona pondered for a moment. She looked like she didn't quite understand why Lucy was asking for such a simple thing, but didn't say anything about it.

"What should they look like? Do you want a handsome friend, or a beautiful one, does their gender matter? Do you want them to be fully devoted to you or have a personality of their own? Do you want someone who supports you through everything or someone you might eventually fall in love with? Do you-"

"I thought it would be you," Lucy cut her off. Blood rushed to her cheeks. Even when she wasn't glowering Desdemona remained an intimidating presence.

Desdemona stared at her for an uncomfortably long amount of time.

"Oh," she said. Her professional and cold demeanor showed some miniscule cracks. "That's a new one," she added after a moment.

"Do you…not want to be my friend?" Lucy asked carefully. "I mean, of course, there's a chance we'll hang out and it turns out we don't really mesh, but if that's the case you can leave if you want and I'll go back home and just be sad and lonely and maybe bury myself like Rosabell said I should and that's fine." She shrugged and thought about how much she really did not think that was fine at all.

"No, I can do this for you," Desdemona said. Her professional tone had crept back into her voice. "But you'll need to wipe the salt off the ground before we can make the pact. Right now I'm confined to this blasted circle and I'd greatly appreciate it if I could stretch my legs a little.

After Lucy vacuumed the soggy salt circle away, Desdemona set foot on the floor, in front of the book. She stretched. Then she pulled a chair from the table and sat down. "Sorry for ruining your furniture," she said. "The whole fire and brimstone thing is part of the package, and I didn't expect to be summoned somewhere with a sprinkler system."

Lucy now saw she had a deep red tail that ended in a point as Desdemona curled it up neatly in her lap.

"That's okay," Lucy said as she sat down across from her. Nova didn't want anything to do with it, and fled to the bedroom. "I can fix it, once I figure out how to replenish my magic."

"So about this pact," Desdemona began. Lucy half expected her to pull out a contract with how formal and impersonal her tone was. "I will require payment, and sacrifice. I am devoted for your entire lifespan to make your wish come true, and this comes at a price. You are aware of the standard price of a demonic pact, I assume," she added gravely. Then she pulled an actual piece of parchment out of seemingly nowhere.

Lucy shook her head slowly and stared at the contract, which was filling itself with details without Desdemona's aid, or a pen.

"Fair enough," Desdemona continued. "The standard price of a demonic pact is one eternal soul. Yours, to be exact. Do you agree to this? Bear in mind this does not include the costs of your specific wish."

Was her eternal soul worth the friendship of this demon, Lucy pondered.

Sure, she thought after debating it for a moment. She might even give a limb to make a new friend, at this point. She didn't use her eternal soul anyway, she thought. So she nodded.

Desdemona nodded once in agreement. "Good. Now for the specific wish of my friendship," her eyes shifted a little when she said this, "your payment would be the sacrifice of ten lambs, your firstborn, and a virgin blood sacrifice. The blood can't be yours, neither can it be of the lambs or the firstborn. It needs to be from someone whose blood has never been spilled for a ritual."

Lucy frowned. "Whoa, what do you need all that stuff for?"

Desdemona gave her a serious look. "It's a low price, you know. I'm not asking you to kill anyone, unless you count the lambs. The blood sacrifice doesn't have to be lethal and I've been known to take very good care of any firstborns I've acquired."

Lucy thought for a moment. "I'll figure something out," she said with a smile.

"Good. You've got ten days," Desdemona said.

"Oh, I don't need ten days!" Lucy grinned at her. "I'll do it all today, no problem. I want to spend time with my new friend as soon as possible, you see. I don't want to wait ten days for that! Where do I sign?"

Desdemona looked a little concerned as she handed Lucy a pen. "Pardon the assumption, but you strike me as rather impulsive."

Lucy took that as a compliment, smiled brightly and signed the paper LUCY with large scratches. She had not inherited Marlucy's beautiful script.

She got up from the table and grabbed her jacket. Desdemona studied her as she did so. Then she went over to the bedroom and leaned in.

"Hey Nova, I'm gonna go out to sacrifice ten lambs to my new demon friend, are you coming with?"

After a moment she walked back to the living room and shrugged. "Guess it's just us two then. Are you coming?"

* * *

They had to walk quite far before they came across any sheep. Lucy knew where the fields were, but they were empty and overgrown. At the border to the next town over however they found fields lively with cows and sheep.

"Oh, there's no lambs," Lucy said with raised brows. She put her hand up to her lips and felt lost. "What do we do now? Does it have to be lambs?" She looked at the sheep. Several of them seemed to be looking at her and Desdemona, but with their horizontal slit pupils it was hard to tell if they were actually looking at them or just in their general direction.

"I suppose sheep will have to do," Desdemona replied. She wouldn't normally make changes to her contracts, but it had been ages since she felt the cool air of the night on her skin and whispering through her hair, and it put her in a good mood.

Lucy didn't move. She kept looking at the sheep, and cracked a smile when a pure black one bleated at Desdemona. "They're pretty funny, aren't they? Look, that one has horns like you do." She pointed at the sheep that had bleated. It stared in Desdemona's general direction. She didn't like it much.

"I'm not a sheep," she said curtly.

"Well?" she said when Lucy still hadn't moved. "What are you waiting for?"

Lucy flushed. "They're not really mine to give away," she stammered. "I think these belong to the monsters from the next town over. They probably wouldn't like it if ten of them went missing."

"You can leave them in the field," Desdemona helpfully explained. "They can still use the meat if they want to, I don't mind."

"But they're woolly sheep!" Lucy retorted.

"I don't see how that makes a difference," Desdemona replied, now slightly annoyed.

"You don't eat woolly sheep, you shear them and you make clothes out of their wool, and the sheep itself goes back into the field where it can run around and play and eat grass and things."

"You are making excuses." Desdemona glared at Lucy icily.

"Do I really have to do this," Lucy whimpered.

"Yes."

Suddenly Lucy's eyes lit up. "Oh, I know! I'll just sacrifice myself!"

Desdemona gaped at her. "What?"

"Yes! I'll sacrifice myself to you, and then I don't have to kill ten sheep. That'd show how serious I am about this pact, right? Cos I gave up my own life for it!"

Desdemona stared at Lucy for about as long as she had back at the house when Lucy had told her she wanted her to be her friend.

"You would be dead," she said finally.

"Actually, I think I might be fine," Lucy replied.

"You would sacrifice yourself to your own wish?" Desdemona reiterated.

Lucy nodded.

"Do you fancy yourself a God?"

"What?"

Desdemona sighed. "Never mind. Forget about the lamb sacrifice. It was more of a formality, anyway."

Lucy breathed a sigh of relief.

"Do you want to go back to my house?" She asked. Desdemona shook her head.

"No. I quite like it out here. I've been trapped in that book for a very long time. I've missed being outside, among humanity."

So they took a walk instead, through the outskirts of Old Town. Any human whose path they crossed gawked at Desdemona, but she disregarded them and Lucy was too busy talking to notice them.

"So Marlucy made me a Cure and now I have to find four other people to help me stop Rosabell," Lucy went on.

"I see," Desdemona said. The night was bright with the full moon high in the sky and covering everything in a blue glow. An owl hooted somewhere and behind them a small animal rustled in the grass. Desdemona could stay out all night just appreciating nature and how alive with sound and movement everything was.

"Oh and then Rosabell beat me up in an alley because she was mad about it. She talked about Marlucy cheating, or something. I think they were playing a game, cos Marlucy mentioned it too, but I don't really know anything beyond that." Lucy frowned at the ground. "Marlucy's book didn't say anything about it, either."

Desdemona looked over at her client. Lucy looked white in the pale light of the moon, as did her hair. It was like she was walking with a spectre at her side, a very chatty spectre in a big woolly coat.

"They did seem competitive when I knew them," Desdemona said. It was the longest sentence she'd spoken since allowing Lucy to forego the lamb sacrifice twenty minutes ago.

Lucy's eyes grew big and she looked at Desdemona in shock. "You knew them?"

"I didn't really _know_ them," Desdemona said. "In fact I've never spoken to Rosabell, I doubt she remembers me as Marlucy was the one who trapped me inside that book. It sounded like Rosabell had similar plans though, but Marlucy beat her to it. Perhaps it's for the better it was Marlucy who captured me."

Lucy hesitated for a moment. "I've been meaning to ask, if it's okay, why Marlucy trapped you inside of that book. You looked really angry when I had just summoned you." She smiled at Desdemona a little apprehensively.

"I had a contract with a person from Old was before they all became zombies, I had no idea that happened until you told me. Anyway, his wish was a rather difficult one. He wanted to be the mightiest person in the land. Now there is a hefty sum to pay for a contract like that and he got a bit more than ten days to fulfill it. One of the requirements was the sacrifice of a powerful person and he stupidly chose Marlucy."

"Marlucy was a powerful person?"

"Unless things have changed she and Rosabell are the only witches in the world. They're just kids but I've heard of formidable feats they've performed. You saw Marlucy single handedly turn a town of zombies back to humans, didn't you? And you told me this night is eternal thanks to Rosabell."

"Oh, yeah, I guess I hadn't thought of that much yet," Lucy admitted. "Those really are impressive things. I think I was too focused on Pretty Cure and feeling lonely to think much about it."

Desdemona continued. "Anyway, Marlucy obviously couldn't be harmed by this guy. He told her about me because I was stupid and didn't put in his contract that he shouldn't talk about me because, you know, most people don't admit they got their wealth thanks to a demon, but I digress. She tracked me down and trapped me in her book with a spell and a binding ritual. She also released all of the souls I collected in all my years of service." She paused, looking like she had a bad taste in her mouth.

"I suppose what she did would be considered an act of good," she said with a hint of annoyance. "People generally do not consider demons who fulfill wishes in trade for souls and sacrifice a as good."

"I wonder why she wrote 'for summoning a friend' on the page," Lucy said.

Desdemona thought for a moment. "We certainly weren't friends. It might've been in reference to the fact that I tend to stick to the side of my clients until their wishes are fulfilled. Usually after, too. I've stayed with some clients for their entire life."

"How old are you?" Lucy asked with some incredulity.

Desdemona smiled a little. "Quite old." Lucy would have to be content with "quite old" as her only answer.

"I can change my appearance," Desdemona went on. "I usually look different for every person I make a deal with. But this is a bit closer to my real appearance. I didn't look like this before I was trapped, I suspect Marlucy's magic made it harder for me to disguise myself."  
"How did you look, then?" Lucy asked.

"Mostly the same, but no horns or tail or red skin. Or yellow eyes, for that matter. People don't like to be reminded that they're making a deal with a demon, so talking to a human looking person puts them at ease."

"What do you really look like?" Lucy asked.

Desdemona threw her a look and said nothing. Lucy resumed staring at the ground in front of her and grumbled something about not meaning to offend.

"So how old are you?" Desdemona asked. Her tone had significantly changed over the course of their walk, she sounded almost friendly now. Lucy wondered if she actually felt bad for the snide look she'd given her moments before.

"I'm not sure," Lucy began, "somewhere between sixteen and eighteen, I think. Jimmy and Gwen are eighteen and we look kinda the same age, so I usually say I'm eighteen."

Desdemona raised a brow. "Eighteen?" Then she shrugged. "I thought you'd be younger, with the way you act."

Lucy stopped walking. Now she was the one who was offended. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Desdemona laughed and turned around. Her laugh was bright and cheerful, not at all what you'd expect from a demon who had held such a serious demeanor before.

"Most eighteen year-olds I've met aren't as… Bubbly as you are. They also not wouldn't summon a demon just to get a friend, I'm quite certain." She smiled. She evidently had not meant to upset Lucy with her remark about her age, and Lucy's frown slowly disappeared.

"Yeah, well, without me you'd still be inside of a book," she retorted with a bright grin.

"I never said I thought your cheerfulness was a bad thing," Desdemona said. "And I very much appreciate you getting me out of that book." She went on walking again.

"So what do eighteen year-olds normally wish for, then," Lucy said, hurrying to catch up.

"Love, or fame." Desdemona's face had grown serious again. She stared straight ahead of her as she talked. "Never liked it when one that young summoned me," she added a bit more quietly.

"What was the second term of the contract again?" Lucy asked, trying to lighten the mood.

"Your firstborn," Desdemona helpfully reiterated, keeping the mood at its low point.

"Oh, yeah," Lucy stammered. "I don't… I don't know if I can have kids, actually." She looked at Desdemona, worried about her reaction. She looked slightly irked, but not surprised.

"An adopted child will do, I don't discriminate," she said. "But that's only if you really can't have your own."

"W-Well, I'm a zombie, so I think that makes it pretty impossible," Lucy went on.

"There's something I've been wondering about that, actually," Desdemona said as she studied Lucy's face. "Your skin is green, but you appear to breathe. And even now, your cheeks are red. If your heart doesn't beat, how is it possible blood can rush to your cheeks?"

Lucy gaped at her.

"I… Wasn't aware," she admitted. "Marlucy said my heart wouldn't beat but… But I guess you're right." She suddenly put a hand on Desdemona's cheek. Desdemona flinched.

"Am I cold?"

"Yes," Desdemona said as she removed Lucy's hand from her face. "Like you'd expect from a corpse."

"I don't get it," Lucy went on. "She said it wouldn't beat." She breathed in and out dramatically several times. "I don't get it at all."

"Maybe you're not as dead as Marlucy thought," Desdemona concluded. Lucy decided she should look up zombies in Marlucy's book once they got home.

* * *

When they got to town Desdemona treated Lucy to hot cocoa from a small cafe on the edge of town. When Lucy asked where she got the money to pay for it Desdemona smiled her mysterious smile, and didn't answer. It seemed Desdemona was quite the master in communicating without using words.

"So, regarding the firstborn," Lucy said after taking a big gulp. A couple of schoolgirls at the table behind them turned their head curiously. "I thought of a solution." She put on her most serious face as she looked at Desdemona, who was all ears.

"I will let you be the godmother of my first child. And any others, if I have them. How's that?"

"How very gracious of you," Desdemona said, and took a sip. "What about the blood sacrifice?"

" _Blood sacrifice_?" a high-pitched whisper came from the table of schoolgirls.

"I thought maybe I could use my magic to conjure up some blood out of nowhere. Because you said I couldn't use my own, and I don't really want to cut anyone else, so… Yeah. Oh, wait! What about black pudding? That's blood!"

"It needs to be human," Desdemona said flatly. She was aware Lucy didn't intend to, but she'd effectively insulted her three times now, both with her offers and by comparing her to a sheep.

"Oh, okay. Would the magic blood be okay then?"

Desdemona shook her head. "It's okay. You don't need to do that." She took another sip of her cocoa.

"Oh, good! What do you want instead?"

"Nothing."

Lucy's eyes grew big. "What?"

"I don't want anything. Consider the contract void. I've had some time to reflect and you getting me out of that book is enough payment of itself." She smiled lightly. Lucy noticed she had small fangs.

"Will… Will you still be my friend," she asked, wondering if that'd take it a step too far.

"I will certainly do my best." Desdemona smiled more brightly this time. It was a difference like day and night comparing her face now with the yellow pair of eyes that had glowered at Lucy from the flames earlier that day.

* * *

"Nova, we're home! I brought you some donuts from the cafe, do you like donuts?" Lucy hung up her coat as Desdemona followed her into the apartment.

"Oh, also, I didn't sacrifice any lambs. And Desdemona is really nice, I promise!" Nova peeked over the corner of the door opening. Her eyes went to the bag of donuts. Lucy placed it on the table and opened it.

"Oh, I forgot about the water damage," she said inspecting the living room. It looked quite bad. The wallpaper on the walls was splitting and bubbles had formed under it, and the carpet and sofas looked like they were stained permanently.

"If you give me your soul I will fix it for you," Desdemona said, and winked at her.

Lucy considered it. "I'm actually not sure I have a soul, because I think Marlucy was my soul."

"That makes two of us," Desdemona said as she looked at Nova, who quickly zipped to the bag of donuts and disappeared inside, apparently still frightened of the tall demon lady in the living room.

Lucy frowned at her. "Marlucy was your sou-"  
"-I mean in that I don't have one. Comes with the whole 'being a demon' thing," Desdemona replied. Lucy blushed.

"Sorry, I can be a little slow sometimes I guess."

"You are the smartest zombie I have ever met."

"I'm the only zombie you've ever met, aren't I," Lucy grumbled. Desdemona didn't answer, she simply chuckled.

Lucy took in the damage of her apartment again when she realised something. "Oh, I do have something I can give you!" She took a bunch of colourful stones from her pocket.

On closer inspection Desdemona realised they were gems. "You don't have to pay me anything, Lucy, the contract is off the table, remember?"

There were four gems in total, one red, one orange, one green and one purple. The red one was faintly glowing. Lucy gasped when she noticed.

"You have to take this one!" She said as she separated it from the others and held it out to Desdemona. "It's glowing, which means it's for you!"

Desdemona took the gem and rolled it around in the palm of her hand. It held a strange force she'd never sensed before in the many gems and riches she'd seen in her life. Something magical.

"That is very kind of you," she said, feeling a little perturbed. "What do I do with it?"

"Watch this," Lucy said, her eyes glittering.

" _Mirabilis Cerebrum Kaibutsu_!"

For a moment Desdemona thought Lucy had caught on fire. The fire was pink however, didn't set off the fire alarms and dissipated within seconds.

"I'll take a bite out of anyone who stands in my way, Cure Cortex!"

Desdemona quickly stepped aside.

Nova looked up from the bag of donuts, her arms and face coated in powdered sugar.

Cortex pointed at her choker on which a bright pink gem shone brilliantly. "Look!"

Desdemona opened her palm and looked at the red gem.

"You think I'm one of your Cures," she said. Cortex nodded.

"Are Cures like witches?" Desdemona asked.

"I don't think so," Cortex said. "But I do know that they are good and they are the stuff of legends and that once I get everyone together, we'll be strong enough to take on Rosabell!"

"Can you do magic?"

Cortex nodded enthusiastically. The gem on her choker started glowing and she produced a wand out of thin air. "Oh, it looks like my magic recharged a bit," she said excitedly. "Maybe all it needs to recharge is time. Watch this!"

"Lux Stellae Praesens! Fix my room!" As soon as Cortex finished the incantation the water damage completely disappeared.

"Very convenient," Desdemona noted.

"That's not what I'm supposed to use it for, really," Cortex admitted. She looked over at Nova expecting a scolding waving fist or some angry chatter, but Nova shrugged instead, her face stuffed with donut.

Cortex smiled. "You don't want to live in a water damaged house either, huh." Nova nodded. She guessed casual magic was okay in special circumstances.

"It's for fighting Rosabell, is it," Desdemona asked. Lucy nodded.

"I don't know what I'd say though. Do I just go 'Lux Stellae Praesens, Rosabell stop being evil', or something?" she made small eight figures with her wand as she said the mock incantation. "That's a bridge to cross when I've actually found all of the other Cures, I guess." She de transformed.

"Now you!" Lucy exclaimed excitedly. The bag of donuts rustled as Nova turned to put her full attention on Desdemona who stood in the middle of the room, dumbfounded, the rock still in her open palm.

"How do I do that," Desdemona asked. She looked at the stone. Lucy's was shaped like a heart and had a relief in it that resembled brain matter, but hers was just a smooth, shapeless red stone with a mystical shine to it.

"You feel it," Lucy explained. "You feel the power in your core and then the words come to you and then you transform." She looked at Desdemona as if she expected something amazing and fantastical to manifest at any moment.

"I feel nothing," Desdemona said flatly.

"Oh," Lucy said. Nova sighed. "What if you say " _Mirabilis Cerebrum Kaibutsu_? That works for me."

"Mirabilis Cerebrum Kaibutsu," Desdemona repeated. Nothing happened.

"Put your soul into it! You gotta really believe it!" Lucy encouraged.

Desdemona briefly pondered whether she should reinform Lucy about her lack of a soul but decided that would be wasted effort.

"I feel one thing," she said.

"What is it," Lucy said, her eyes gleaming with wonder.

"That no matter how hard I shout that incantation, nothing will happen. Nothing whatsoever. I will look stupid, that little fairy might laugh at me," she nodded at Nova who quickly hid inside the bag again, "and you will be disappointed. If you say I have to feel something for this to work, I can guarantee you right now that it is not going to work."

"Aw." Lucy dropped herself on the now dry sofa. "I feel like if you at least said it with a bit more conviction it might work. But okay, fine, if you really don't want to."

"It's not so much a question of me not wanting to," Desdemona said. She slipped the stone into her pocket. "If you believe I can, I will keep it on me. Maybe it needs a trigger of some sort. But a part of me tells me it will not work regardless of what we try."

"You gotta believe in it, it's not gonna work if you talk like that," Lucy said.

"If you say so," Desdemona said, deciding to drop the issue for now. "Now if you'll please show me to the shops. I'll make us dinner, I've missed it greatly. It'll be my treat."


	4. Them! Part 2

TW: Suicide mention

The doors opened with a heavy creak as Noor pushed against them. The urban legend said the door would open by themselves if a person was near it; clearly she could debunk that now. It was a damn heavy door, too! _Maybe it'll only open by itself for humans_ , Noor wondered.

She clicked on the torch she was carrying and shone it around in the hall. The building was as abandoned and decrepit as a building could be without collapsing. Noor hoped she could find what she was looking for on the ground floor, she wasn't sure the higher floors would still be able to hold any extra weight up.

She turned around and studied the doors she just came through, now closed again. _That won't do_ , she thought. She checked the floor for doorstops and when she found them she secured both doors on it, leaving the entrance hall basking in the light of the full moon. There, now if she had to run she could get away a lot faster. For a moment she lamented not bringing her bat, but she quickly waved the thought away. The urban legend said this place was haunted, what the hell was she gonna do against ghosts with a bat? And anyway, it was just a story. She turned around again and ventured into the building.

 _If I was in charge of a school, where would I keep the uniforms_. She was humming to keep herself company, to keep the silence away. And maybe to drown out possible supernatural noises, but she wouldn't admit that. Maybe in the custodians office?

Noor went to a school that didn't use uniforms, so she honestly had no idea. But she knew the human school had a uniform, before they all became zombies, and some people did include in their version of the urban legend that this school did too, because the ghost in the story was mentioned to be wearing one. _'A uniform with a ribbon that seems to be floating, as if immersed in water'_ , she remembered.

After checking out a few classrooms and finding nothing, she began feeling the distinct sensation of being watched. She told herself she was just imagining things, it was only natural she'd start feeling things like that with how dark it was and how the place was allegedly haunted. So she kept on going.

Eventually she came across a door that looked different from the others. It had glass on it, but it was rippled so she couldn't see inside, and under that was a small sign written in a language she couldn't read. She tried the doorknob, but it wouldn't budge. "Really," she sighed. The school had been abandoned for ages, what could be left that's worth protecting in this place?

She gave the door a solid kick and turned with a start when she swore she heard a sharp intake of breath in time with the cracking of the door.

She sighed, frustrated with herself for letting the stupid story get to her. The door was still locked, but when she'd kicked it it had come loose a little, so she kicked it a few more times, until she heard the frame crack as the deadbolt ripped through it and the door opened with a stuttering whine.

Inside the room stood a desk, empty save for a cup intended to hold pens, which had been tipped over and had its contents spilled over the desk surface. In the left corner stood a coat rack, which to Noor's surprise had a coat hanging on it. In the right corner stood a large, handsome cabinet. Like everything else in the room it was coated in a layer of dust, but Noor thought that if this place wasn't so damn creepy and she wasn't going to try to take anything from it but the uniforms, the cabinet could be a nice addition to a home in Unity.

She still felt the sensation of being watched, but the direction had changed. When she had been walking around the school, it felt like someone had been following her, but now it felt like someone was staring her in the face from a small distance. She tried to ignore it, intent on opening the large cabinet in front of her, but something kept her from stepping closer.

Then she noticed it.

Engulfed in the dark shadows cast by her torch, the coat rack had changed.

Noor tried to convince herself it was just her eye playing tricks on her in the dark, but there, in the dark, undeniably stood a girl. She was short, about a head shorter than Noor, and her eyes were obscured by her fringe. She was wearing the uniform Noor was looking for. She stood in the corner with her arms folded over her small frame, her face turned down slightly. It was as if she was trying to hide in plain sight.

Noor swallowed and gathered all her courage, then shone the torch back to the coat rack. If it really was a ghost, which it wasn't because it was just a stupid story, what could it do to her? It could spook her maybe, and that'd be it. And if the story was real, which it wasn't, then Noor knew what to say to get her to leave her alone. _Sabishii-chan._

But it was just a coat rack. A dusty and moth-eaten brown overcoat hung limply on one of its hooks.

"That's not funny!" Noor shouted. Nobody was there to call her out on being spooked, so she could shout out her frustrations, it was fine. She took a solid step towards the cabinet and swung open the doors before her mind could bother her with a thought about what could possibly be hiding inside of it.

Inside of it were several hangers. Spare uniforms! Jackpot! Noor grabbed them as fast as she could, indiscriminately grabbing any garment she could get her hands on. When she couldn't carry any more, she hurried out of the room, into the hall, and stopped dead in her tracks when she felt an ice cold presence to her left.

She kept looking forward with her normal eye, but opened her third eye a little and looked to her left.

There she was, hovering above the ground, barefoot and her skin stark white. Her black hair floated around her head gently, as if carried on waves. Noor tried her hardest not to look at her, but was too frightened to move. She knew the story, she knew what to say. She heard the big front doors she had secured open slam shut a little ways away.

"Do you want to be my friend?" The ghost's voice was light and sad.

Noor wasn't sure if she had heard the words spoken out loud or if they were in her mind. The spirit's eyes were hidden by her hair, but Noor's third eye spied a glint of one of them and saw they were pure black and filled with hate.

Noor straightened herself. _You know what to do_.

She turned her head and looked at the spirit people called Sabishii-chan, and instantly regretted it. The vision she had with her third eye slightly differed from her normal vision and sometimes when she saw odd things she could write it off as being caused by her eye, but now she was looking at the spirit with her normal eye she had to accept the fact that she was really there.

"Do you want to be my friend," Sabishii-chan said again, sounding more desperate this time.

"No."

Noor didn't wait for the spirit's reaction to her rejection and bolted towards the exit, gripping the uniforms tightly. She felt the walls closing in on her behind her, the spirit's wrath for being rejected. When she made it to the main hall she saw the front doors were still open -had she imagined hearing them slam shut?- and ran for them. A pair of trousers began slipping out of her grasp but she had no time to readjust them.

She set one foot outside, onto the stairs leading up to the school, stepped onto a leg of the pair of trousers and fell down the stairs. She hit her knee on one of the steps and her chin on the ground beneath. The impact caused her jaw to snap shut and she felt one of her fangs bore into her upper lip.

She crumpled up into a ball at the foot of the stairs, still grasping the uniforms tightly, and swore. The moment she stepped through the doors the feeling of being chased ceased. The legend was true, if you made it outside the school Sabishii-chan would leave you alone.

She looked up at the building and saw the doors were closed. She tasted blood and her knee was screaming, but Noor had been through worse before. She got up and assessed the damage: She decided she got away pretty well for someone who just confronted a vengeful spirit. This would be a good tale to tell the girls, she thought as she proudly made her way back to Unity.

* * *

"This is decidedly unnatural," Desdemona said as she peered out the window at the moon. "And you say it's been like this for weeks now?"  
Lucy nodded.

Nova was sitting next to Desdemona on the windowsill and looked out into the night. After spending a little more time with her she'd decided Desdemona wasn't so scary after all.

"I think Rosabell is trying to keep Jimmy and Gwen away from me, because I was going to make them Cures," Lucy explained. "Now they're wolves and they lose their minds when the moon is full, so I can't talk to them. They wouldn't recognise me and they're really dangerous when they're wolves." She sighed. "I hope they're okay. I check their house every day, but I can't go in and it's hard to tell. The first few days I could hear them fighting each other, but lately they seem to be asleep most of the time."

Desdemona thought for a moment. "It's not natural for a werewolf to be stuck as a wolf for that long. Maybe they've worn themselves out."

"I need to find the other Cures as soon as possible, so we can fix the sky," Lucy said, balling her hand into a fist.

Desdemona turned around to look at her. "How do you go about finding Pretty Cures?"

Lucy grabbed the remaining stones from her pocket and looked at them. "Well, they glow when there's someone around who can use them. Or at least, I think that's how it works."

Desdemona thought for a moment. "So we could go around town and if you hold the gems in your hand we can see whoever they light up for to find the other Cures." She said it rather matter-of-factly but she raised one of her eyebrows which made Lucy confused on whether she was asking her for her opinion or not. Desdemona was very intelligent, and she herself was a little dim, so she couldn't imagine Desdemona would ask her for her opinion.

"Well, what do you think?" Desdemona said when Lucy took too long to answer.

"Oh, yes, that sounds like a good plan! I don't know how long it'll take but I mean, we've got nothing to lose right?" Lucy felt a little flattered.

* * *

"Have you got any idea what kind of people can become Cures," Desdemona asked when they made it outside. "Maybe we can narrow it down a little."

"From what Marlucy said, I gathered that Pretty Cure are a force of good, so I imagine they have to be good people."

Desdemona nodded knowingly and looked a little dejected, but Lucy didn't notice.

"The pink one is mine, and the orange one glowed for Jimmy and Gwen, and the red one glowed for you…" Lucy pondered for a moment. "What do all of us have in common?"

Nova, who was resting on her shoulder, screwed up her eyes as if thinking very deeply.

"We're all monsters of a sort," Desdemona said.

"You think it won't work for humans?" Lucy asked.

"These specifically," she pointed at the gems Lucy was holding in her hand, "might only work for monsters. In one of my previous lives I remember there being Pretty Cure. Not my client, mind you, just in the country they lived in. Little was known about their true identity, but they were all young girls, mid-teens I would say. All human, by the way, but there were no monsters there in general, if you don't count the evil ones. The girls all had a strong sense of justice, and they fought evil creatures to defend humanity but they didn't seem like cruel people. I remember one of them even talked down one of their enemies once. I found it all very intriguing but my client did not and since they were the one I had a contract with I didn't spend a particularly long amount of time on studying them."

"How can you not care about Pretty Cure," Lucy said. "They seem really cool. I can do magic and I get a cool outfit and I help people, what's not to like?"

She quickly focused her attention on the gems as they walked, trying to make sure she wouldn't miss it if one of them lit up.

"Have you fought any enemies as Cure Cortex?" Desdemona asked as they walked through a street lined with flats. Lucy shook her head.

"Should I? I mean, I know I need to stop Rosabell but I have no idea where she is and she defeated Marlucy, so I doubt I can do much in the state I'm in…"

"The Pretty Cure I remember fought giant creatures summoned by the evil they were fighting against. It happened quite a lot actually, there'd be some beast terrorizing the city every other week or so. Lasted about a year I think…"

"That sounds pretty exciting," Lucy said. "I hope Rosabell doesn't create anything that hurts people, but if she does I'll be ready!" She made the hand holding the gems into a fist and pumped it. "Oh, oops, I probably should be focusing on the gems…"

They made it to the town square without any of the gems showing any signs of lighting up.

"There's quite a gathering of people," Lucy noted, "maybe we'll find somebody here."  
"They're all crowded together, I wonder why," Desdemona said.

Nova studied the group warily. Lucy put the gems in her pocket for safekeeping. She could quickly check them while they were closer to the group and put them back; she didn't feel completely comfortable keeping them out considering how greedy people got when they found out she could do magic.

As they approached, they noticed the group consisted largely of monsters, with just a few humans talking to them. Lucy recognised the humans as some of the teachers of Old Town's school, including Mister Turan. The monsters were standing in front of several covered up carts.

The monsters looked amicable enough, a big ogrish man at the front talking enthusiastically and gesturing with his large hands, but the humans looked a little frightened; like a dog with its tail between its legs signalling it doesn't want to be there but can't run away yet.

"Good…Evening," Lucy said, hesitating a moment on the time. It was always evening now, wasn't it?

"Oh, Lucy, hello," Mister Turan greeted. "I'm glad you're here, actually." Then his eye fell on Desdemona. His smile wavered a little, but he tried to keep a straight face.

"You brought a friend?"

Lucy nodded. "This is Desdemona. I summoned her yesterday. I hope she can help me out as a Pretty Cure."

Desdemona looked at Lucy, but didn't say anything. She was surprised Lucy was so open about her plight as a Pretty Cure. She'd been under the impression it was a very secret affair.

She nodded at Mister Turan and the other people in the square. "Nice to meet you. Don't let my appearance fool you, I assure you I am quite friendly when unprovoked." She smiled, though none of the humans returned the smile.

The large monster however let out a big, bellowing laugh and the monsters at his side chuckled as well, except for the slightly smaller girl standing on the big monster's side; she studied Desdemona curiously but quietly. She was wearing an eyepatch, and in the middle of her forehead sat a large, closed third eye.

"So you're Lucy," said the monster. His voice was low and loud, but kind, in an intimidating Father Christmas sort of way.  
"I am," Lucy said. "You were talking about me?" she asked, a little surprised.

The monster nodded.

"We used to come here every week to care for the zombies," he explained, and he gestured at the carts. "Imagine our surprise when we came here today and they're all alive again! It's marvelous!" he gestured widely with his arms, and Mister Turan took a little step back to get out of range.

"But it seems that now everyone's alive again, they're a bit… Frightened of us," the monster went on.

"Oh, no no," Mister Turan said, holding his hands up in front of him. "We mean no offense," he said, "please understand, we have no memory of our time as the undead, so we were just a little… _surprised_ , to see a group of monsters walk into town with carts full of…" He hesitated while eyeing the carts, mild horror visible on his face, "full off… Matter."

The big monster laughed again. "You were very happy with that 'matter' when you were dead!"

"Y-yes, we should be grateful you kept us from starving during that time," Mister Turan mumbled. The other humans nodded and mumbled along with him.

"What happened to Marlucy?" The monster asked Lucy. "I understand you are not her, outside of looking exactly like her. Well, except the green skin of course."

"She died, but I don't know how. Just that Rosabell defeated her and that I need to make sure Rosabell doesn't do anything else evil. Marlucy told me she's planning something big and really bad. And I want the eternal night to stop, as well," she added.

"That's a real pity, that," the monster said. "Marlucy's always been a great help to us in Unity. That's uh, 'Monster Town', I believe I've heard your people call it."

Lucy's face lit up. "She has? Can you tell me more about her? I don't have her memories and I feel like I know so little."

The monster smiled and put a hand on the shoulder of the girl standing next to him. "I've got some business to take care of here in Old Town regarding the new developments. But my daughter certainly has time to tell you all about it. Don't you, Noor?"

The girl smiled and nodded. Lucy saw she had fangs, like Desdemona, but they were on the bottom of her jaw as opposed to the top. Unlike her father however they were not so big they jutted out of her mouth when it was closed, but she did have horns like he did, and the same unnaturally coloured hair, though hers was a brighter violet than his. Lucy wondered what kind of monster she was.

"Maybe we could combine efforts," Desdemona said. "We could walk along Old Town with the gems while you tell us about Marlucy."

Noor shrugged. "Sure."

* * *

Noor had a very confident stride and Lucy struggled to keep up with her at points. She seemed to be a smaller version of her father; boisterous and confident, but very friendly.

"I've come here with dad ever since Old Town became a zombie town. I used to think the brains were kind of disgusting but you get used to it after a while. It's kind of like frogspawn, you know?" Lucy enthusiastically shook her head, she had no idea what frogspawn even was but it sure sounded interesting!

Desdemona looked straight ahead and listened without speaking, much like she had when Lucy had told her about herself when they walked through the outskirts of town before.

"Anyway, Dad was all like 'oh Noor go tell them about Marlucy' but honestly all I know is stuff he's told me. I've never really met her or Rosabell myself. But my dad's the chief of Unity so he's dealt with them occasionally. They didn't live in Unity, or Old Town, but I don't think anyone knew where they did live… There's this legend that they lived in the night sky, because Rosabell was associated with the moon and Marlucy with the stars. So if you wished hard enough they would come down to help you."

"Rosabell helped people," Lucy said with a frown. "But she turned Old Town into zombies and she defeated Marlucy, that doesn't make sense…"

"It wasn't really that she helped people," Noor said, looking a little conflicted. "If Rosabell offered to help you out, it was guaranteed she was doing it because she would get something out of it herself. Or she'd screw you over for a laugh. I don't think she was really evil, but she was a bit of a jerk, at least the way the tales told it. But I think calling her a jerk doesn't cut it anymore these days." Noor looked up at the sky. "She took the day away from us which has really messed up life in Unity, and I imagine everywhere else too. And if she's killed Marlucy…" Noor's face went dark. "I think we've really got reason to worry."

"That's why I'm here," Lucy said excitedly. "I'm gonna put it right! I'm not strong enough now, but I know I will be able to do it once I've found all the other Pretty Cure. I'll be as strong as Marlucy was!"

Noor smiled and nodded but Desdemona saw there was doubt in her eye. It was the same doubt she felt herself whenever Lucy spoke of her determination; it might be true that she would be as strong as Marlucy if she got the team together, but Rosabell still defeated Marlucy even when she was at full strength…

"I completely forgot!" Lucy slapped her forehead, then rummaged in her pocket and took out the gems. "We went out to find the other Cures. I swear my mind is still pretty spotty even though it no longer deteriorates."

"So those make people into Precures huh," Noor nodded at the gems. "The hell is a Precure anyway?"

"They're legendary," Lucy said, mainly parroting what Marlucy had told her, "they're defenders of good, and they protect the world from evil." Noor looked quite impressed.

"Defenders of good, huh. That sounds pretty cool. Do they fight?" She punched her fists at the air in front of her.

"Well, I haven't fought anything myself yet," Lucy explained, "but Desdemona says the Cures she knew fought things. So in the future, maybe!"

Noor laughed. "I'd pay good money to see someone deck Rosabell in the face, I won't lie."

Lucy opened the hand she was holding the gems in and looked at them. Then she gasped. "The orange one is glowing! Noor, you should take it!" She grabbed the gem and held it out to Noor, who looked very surprised. Her third eye fluttered open a little.

Before she could say anything, Lucy pulled the gem back. "Wait, I was gonna give this one to my friends, I forgot. I can't give it to you, I'm sorry…" Noor sighed and smiled.

"That's alright. I'm sure I'm not 'legendary Cure' material anyway."

"That's interesting," Desdemona noted. "So the gems aren't bound to one person. The orange one lit up for Jimmy and Gwen, but also for Noor." She put her hand on her chin and gazed narrowly at the gems for a moment. She took her own gem out of her pocket.

"I see you've found one of your legends already," Noor said with a smirk.

"Maybe," Desdemona replied curtly.

"Don't go giving that to someone else," Lucy said. She stomped her foot and scowled. She had balled her fists at both her sides and she looked _very_ disappointed. It surprised both Desdemona and Noor; they hadn't seen her like this before.

"I gave it to you because I believe you can be a Cure, and I want you in my team. So don't give it to someone else because you disagree! Have a little faith!"

Desdemona didn't know what to say. She put the stone into her pocket again and cast her eyes to the ground. "Fair enough. I won't give it away."

Lucy's stance relaxed at once, and she cracked a smile. "Good. Thank you!"

"I don't know if threatening people into joining your team is the best course of action," Noor said to Lucy under her breath. Lucy however was too busy skipping and forgetting about looking at the gems in her hand to reply.

* * *

"That was pretty much all I knew about Marlucy. Sorry I couldn't tell you more. Basically Rosabell would screw stuff up for us, and Marlucy would put it right. I guess this is still kind of like that, but on a way bigger scale. I hope you can find your other legends soon." They were on a hill overlooking Old Town, near the forest.

"Thank you very much," Lucy said.

Desdemona nodded. "It was quite insightful."

"No problem," Noor said. She hopped from one foot to the other and looked a little bit uncomfortable.

"Are you alright," Desdemona asked.

"Yeah, don't worry about me," Noor said. "I uh, I need to get back to my Dad."

From the glance she threw at the mansion Desdemona could tell that wasn't the full story. She looked over to the building herself.

It was a large mansion, with at least three floors. In front of the building was a large garden. It looked rather well kept, though none of the bushes bore any flowers and most of the plants looked withered thanks to the lack of sun. There were lights on inside the mansion, though the curtains were drawn. A curtain in the window nearest to the door was bent at an odd angle.

"Do you know who lives there?" She nodded at the building.

"Nobody," Noor said quickly.

Desdemona looked back at her with a cocked brow.

"Who turned on the lights then," Lucy asked.

Noor looked even more uncomfortable. She averted her gaze from the house and looked at Old Town instead. "There is someone inside, but nobody is alive in that house."

Lucy took a step towards the mansion. Her interest had been piqued. Noor grabbed her shoulder and stopped her. "Don't go in! I mean it. That house is dangerous. Everyone in Unity knows. If the people in Old Town don't remember, you should tell them."

"What's wrong with it," Lucy asked. Something was drawing her to the house regardless of Noor's warnings.

"It's a long story. I can tell you but I don't want to do it in front of the house."

"Why-"  
"Please respect my wishes. I'll tell you all about it, just… I don't want to be near it, okay?" She looked at the house again and jumped. "We have to go, now." She turned and without waiting for Desdemona and Lucy started walking towards the forest.

They quickly followed. Desdemona looked at the mansion and wondered what had made Noor jump. She noticed the curtain next to the door had straightened out. Lucy was looking at the gems, but they were obscured by her hand. It looked like she wanted to say something to Noor, but decided against it. Then she put the gems back into her pocket.

* * *

"Okay, this is far enough, I can tell you about it now."

They were on a path in the forest, which was dark but not pitch black thanks to both the moon and the gentle blue glow Nova emitted. Lucy thought it was strange there were televisions, sofas, lamp shades and other types of furniture scattered in heaps throughout the forest along the path, but was too interested in Noor's story about the mansion to say anything at the moment. Desdemona felt similarly, but did not want to be impolite and interrupt.

"The person who lives there is nicknamed the Bride. Nobody knows her real name, but she's been there for a really long time. Like, close to a hundred years long."

"Is she a ghost?" Lucy asked. Noor shook her head.

"If she was just a ghost she wouldn't be so dangerous. No, she's…" Noor frowned, she tried to find the right words but it was hard. "She's not really dead I suppose, but I don't know if the state she's in could be properly called alive either. However which way you put it, she belongs dead."

"Rosabell said that about me," Lucy said quietly. She gripped one of the gems in her pocket a little tighter. Noor continued.

"It makes more sense if I start from the beginning. The Bride came here years and years ago together with her fiance, that's why they call her 'the Bride'. She was badly hurt, and he was carrying her, trying to get help. The mansion is the closest residence near the forest, which they came out of, so naturally he went in there first. That was a big mistake, because the man who used to live there, he wasn't a good person. He… He experimented on people. The mansion used to have a large graveyard but that was excavated after he died, and the people buried there were given proper burials. Place was mad haunted before that, I tell you. Anyway, he saw the state the Bride was in and said to her fiance that he could help them. He took her into his surgery and… He changed her. He made her stronger, physically, but because he ignored her actual wounds she died on the table. But he knew how to resurrect bodies, and it was a very stormy night, so he resurrected her with the help of a single lightning strike."

Nova looked intrigued but horrified, she covered her mouth with her fist as if to stop herself from screaming out in horror. Desdemona was a little doubtful, and Lucy listened with bated breath.

"Anyway, she came back, but she wasn't herself anymore. She was covered in scars and stitches, and her skin had turned blue, which isn't normal for humans. Most importantly, her personality was gone. Now the doctor was happy with this because he intended for her to become his servant. She'd be like a maid to keep the house in order but also beat the shit out of anyone who tried to get into the mansion without his permission, which is why he made her so strong. When her fiance saw her in her new form, it frightened him so much he got a heart attack and died on the spot. Now the Bride's soul wasn't completely gone, and when she saw her fiance collapse, she killed the doctor in a rage, as it was his fault she was like this now."

Nova let out a small yelp.

"It's like a tale from a storybook," Desdemona said.

Noor rolled her eye. "Well, to be fair, some of the details probably changed over the years the story was retold, it happened ages ago. But it's true, I swear! The Bride is in that mansion and she attacks anyone who tries to get in."

"I feel really bad for her," Lucy said. "What a horrible thing to happen to a person."

"I'd feel bad, but she's really badly hurt one of my friends who stumbled in there by accident. I kinda want revenge, but I know the Bride can't help being who she is, I guess."

"What did she do," Lucy asked.

"My friend went in to ask for directions because she'd gotten lost after scavenging in the forest. She thought it'd be a nice place because the lights are on and everything's kept in good order, so the place doesn't look like it's inhabited by a crazy blue woman. So she went in, and when she found the Bride, she dragged her to the door by her hair. Threw her out so hard she broke her nose when she hit the ground, and she had this huge chunk of hair missing for ages. Really traumatized her."

Noor looked quite upset. Desdemona noticed she balled her fist, but didn't fully close it, like she was closing it around an invisible object she was used to carrying on her.

"I wish there was something we could do to help," Lucy lamented.

Noor shrugged. "Maybe another lightning strike will do her in. It's probably best for everyone, including her. It's gotta suck being a thing with no mind except for some vague memories of the love of your life keeling over in front of you."

"You've got quite the way with words," Desdemona said with a raised eyebrow.

Noor opened her mouth to say something more but then Lucy tripped over a stray television and fell to the ground with a huge crash.

"Why are these here!" she shouted, fumbling to get up. Nova pulled on one of her sleeves, trying to help her to her feet though she was too small to be of much help. "Televisions don't belong in the forest, nor do sofas, or coffee tables, or any of these things!" Lucy angrily listed every single piece of furniture she had seen in the forest so far while Desdemona helped her up.

"Maybe the Bride tripped over a lampshade or something and that's how she got hurt." Lucy puffed up her cheeks and crossed her arms, then kicked the screen off the path.

"Oh yeah, those," Noor said. "This forest is a little different. The objects aren't throughout the whole forest, just this part. We don't really know where all this stuff comes from, but it's pretty useful if you need a new fridge or something."

"Intriguing," Desdemona said.

"I don't like it," Lucy pouted. Nova flew from piece to piece, inspecting everything as if she was looking for something to maybe take home.

"We should turn around," Noor said. "It's getting late."

* * *

They weren't sure when it had changed, but the path they took back was not the same as the one they followed into the forest. There was no furniture anymore, and the trees along the path were a different kind.

"Oh, that's a bit annoying," Noor said.

"What's happening?" Lucy looked a little scared. So did Nova, who huddled into Lucy's scarf for warmth and safety.

"Sabishii-chan. She must have noticed us."

"Who's that," Desdemona asked.

"She's a ghost. She haunts a school building in the forest. It's not always there, but sometimes it'll appear when you go into the forest, or try to get out of it. I'm not sure how it works, or how she does it."

"A disappearing school building," Lucy said.

"Well, it doesn't really disappear, I don't think it's actually really inside of the forest, if I'm honest. When I went there it distinctly felt like I was somewhere entirely different. Far from home."

"I don't see a building," Desdemona noted as she looked around.

"It's down that path," Noor gestured. "If we don't go down it, we might end up back in the normal forest. Or if Sabishii-chan notices I'm here." She chuckled.

"You've been to the school?"

Noor nodded. "I didn't believe the legend to be honest, but I knew because of the type of school it was that it'd have a uniform so I went in to check if there were still some left there. And she's definitely real!"

"So I assume that, like the bride, this girl has a story," Desdemona inquired. Once again, Noor nodded. Lucy stared down the path that supposedly had the school at the end of it. She dropped something on the ground and quickly bent down to pick it up.

"There's a lot of different versions of the legend, but the gist of it is that there's this school girl ghost who is really lonely. She'll ask anyone who enters her school if they want to be her friend, and she spirits away anyone who says 'yes'. If you don't give her a clear answer she won't let you out of the school, and if you say 'no' she'll get really angry, but you can escape from the school and she'll leave you alone once you get out of the building."

Lucy was still staring down at the path, walking backwards behind Noor and Desdemona. Nova tugged at her scarf for her to turn around.

"So she's a vengeful spirit then," Desdemona said. "Do you know how she became that way?"

Noor scratched her cheek. "That's kinda where the story gets all over the place. She definitely got betrayed by a friend at some point, or at least all the stories have that bit in common. Nobody remembers what her real name is, so they just call her Sabishii-chan. I think it means Lonely Girl, if I remember correctly. She was a second year at this school called Hachigoya High and she'd always been a bit of an outcast for one reason or another, so she didn't have any friends. Then one day a new girl transferred into her class, and she got on with Sabishii-chan really well. So Sabishii-chan finally had a friend, and she was really happy about that, but then something happened, and she lost her friend. Most stories say her friend found new friends who told her to ditch Sabishii-chan, or that she thought Sabishii-chan was too clingy or weird after hanging out with her for a while. Anyway, she ended up alone again."

"Sabishii-chan is a pretty cutesy name for a vengeful ghost," Lucy said to Nova. Nova agreed. Lucy was still walking backwards.

"How did she die," Desdemona asked quietly.

"That's another detail that gets fudged a lot. But I think I know which one is true. Some say she jumped off the roof of the school after her friend didn't show up to meet her there when she asked, another says her friend pushed her off, but I don't think that fits with how she behaves as a ghost." Noor hesitated for a moment, then shook her head lightly. "There's a lot of different stories where she kills herself in some way at the end. But I don't think she did."

Desdemona waited for her to continue as Noor gathered her thoughts.

"I think… I think she drowned. The stories always mention how her hair and the ribbon she wears around her collar seem to float as if she's under water, and I've seen her, so I know they really do. She also doesn't wear any shoes. I mean, I know that doesn't have to mean anything but for some reason that just makes sense to me. And I don't think she killed herself. I think it was an accident."

The forest seemed to have grown colder on their walk home. Everything was eerily quiet, their footsteps were the only sound they could hear.

"I feel sorry for Sabishii-chan, too," Lucy said, as she finally turned around.

Noor nodded. "So do I."

* * *

"There we go, we're back in the normal forest!"

Once again they were surrounded by abandoned furniture. The forest felt warmer here, and the rustling of the leaves was a welcome addition to the sound of their footsteps.

"I should really get back to my Dad," Noor said. Lucy and Desdemona walked with her back to town. "Wow, we spent nearly an entire day exploring," Desdemona said as she looked at her wrist watch, which Lucy never noticed before. "And nothing to show for it." She sighed. "That's a real pity. If only another gem lit up for you, Noor." She smiled at Noor. Noor looked a little spooked.

"Oh no, that's alright, again, I don't think I'm legendary Cure material." She grinned, which made her look quite a bit more like her father. "Hope I'll see you guys again, this was fun! Even if I'm not a legend and all. I'm in town with my dad around the same time every other week, so just look for me at the square."

Lucy nodded happily. "I'd love to!"

* * *

In an old but well-kept mansion full of ancient whispers and forgotten memories a young, blue-skinned woman went on with her daily routine that she had kept up for almost a hundred years.

In a dilapidated school building a schoolgirl played make believe with her friends. It would be the same game again, and a small speck of her mind buried deep under hatred, fear and sadness wondered if anything would be different this time.

In a cosy wooden chateau in the middle of Unity Noor went to work on the uniforms she had collected earlier. Dyeing them would take a while and she would need to take care not to stain her arms. She hoped she would get to see Lucy and Desdemona in action as Cures at some point, because as much as she'd denied wanting to become one herself she sure had been intrigued with the idea of punching bad guys in the face.


	5. Monsters on the School Grounds

"You enrolled me in school?!" Lucy jumped up on her bed. "Why didn't you ask me first!"  
"Because you are of a school going age and I think your education is important," Desdemona said matter of factly. She was leaning on the doorframe.

"Plus you could use some semblance of a schedule in your day. It's one in the afternoon and you just got up."

"I sleep really long, okay? It's probably because I'm a zombie or something!"  
" _Or_ it's because you have nothing to do and no reason to get out of bed. That's not good for you, you know. You need routine."

"Marlucy never went to school!"

"Marlucy was a powerful witch who people called on for help. You're just little Lucy who needs to find other Pretty Cures but that's about it."

Lucy jumped off the bed and walked up to Desdemona. "I'm not little," she said, balancing on her tiptoes to be eye level with Desdemona. "And I'm trying to find the other Cures every day! If anything I think _you_ could work a little harder on activating your gem," she pouted.

"The Pretty Cure I knew still went to school," Desdemona said. "And education is important."  
"Saving the world is more important," Lucy rebutted.

"Didn't you feel lonely before you summoned me? A school is full of kids your age, you wouldn't be lonely anymore."

"I've got you now, and Nova, I'm not alone."

"You will be from eight in the morning to five in the afternoon Monday to Friday soon, as I'm going to be a teacher's assistant. I've always liked working with children and I'd personally like some routine in my life. I usually do whatever suits my client but now I have some freedom to choose I decided to seize that opportunity."

Lucy didn't have a retort for that.

"And who knows, maybe you will find the rest of the team in school. Again, it's full of people your age, and Pretty Cure are usually teenagers." Desdemona smiled.

Lucy put her weight back down on her feet and crossed her arms. "Fine," she mumbled. "Can I at least bring Nova?"

* * *

A few days later Lucy found herself in a shiny new uniform in front of a classroom of kids she'd never seen before. In the corner in the back sat Desdemona, giving her a little nod and smile.

Mister Turan stood next to his desk and gave her a very similar smile. "Alright class, we have a new student in our midst today. Please be nice to her and help her out if she needs anything. Now Lucy, if you could please introduce yourself?"

"My name is Lucy," she said. "You might've seen me around town…" She felt a blush creep up on her cheeks as she was becoming aware of how much she was being gawked at by the rest of the class. "Um, I might be the only person left with green skin, but I assure you I'm not brainless! I'm still a zombie I guess, sort of, but I'm pretty much the same as everyone else. I hope we can be friends." She quickly scrawled her name on the board and wondered if her giant scratchy writing would be a problem on tests.

A boy's hand shot up in the air.

"This isn't a lecture Ben," Mister Turan said. "You can ask Lucy things after class if you want." The boy named Ben slowly put his hand back down. Lucy really wanted to know what his question was but figured it wasn't her place.

"Alright Lucy, you can sit in the empty seat over there, next to Verity."

A girl with long, curly blonde hair quickly waved at Lucy to indicate she was Verity. Lucy thanked her with a whisper, as the class had several empty desks and she had panicked for a second when Mister Turan didn't point out which seat he was referring to.

"Nice to meet you," Verity whispered. She spoke with a drawl Lucy had never heard before but she found it very charming.

"You too," she said.

"Don't forget to write down the test dates in your planner," Mister Turan said at the end of class. Lucy panicked. She did have a planner, Desdemona had gifted her one before she started school, but she hadn't brought any pens.

"Do you want to borrow mine?" Verity smiled at her and held out her pen.

"Oh, thank you! I can't believe I forgot to bring a pen on the first day," Lucy said as she took the pen. She only now noticed Verity was wearing gloves. They covered her entire arm up to the sleeve of her shirt. She saw something change in Verity's expression when she noticed Lucy was looking at them.

"You can keep it," she said with a nod to the pen. "I've got tons."

"That's so nice of you," Lucy said. She decided not to mention the gloves.

As they got up to go to the next class Verity came up to her again. She spoke in a low voice, though most of it was covered up by the shuffling of chairs and talking people for it to be overheard anyway. "Listen, Lucy, I was wondering if you could help me with something during lunch. I hope it won't be too much to ask but I think you're the only one who could help me. Terribly sorry to spring this on you like this outta nowhere." She looked apologetic. Her eyes were a very light shade of brown Lucy had never seen before. They actually looked more pale pink than brown, she thought.

Lucy smiled and nodded. "Of course I'll help you! You gave me your pen, I'd like to repay the kindness."

Verity laughed, but it lacked joy. "I think this is a little bigger than a pen, I'm afraid. I'll tell you more about it at lunch, okay? Thanks a bunch!"

She skipped ahead of Lucy out of the class. Lucy decided she liked Verity, but something was decidedly off about her.

She looked at her schedule and realised she had no idea where to go.

"Lost already?" Desdemona came up to her. "I see you've already made a friend. I told you school would be nice."

Lucy scowled at her. "I summoned you because I wanted you to be my friend, not my mum." Desdemona laughed. "I'll show you where your next class is."

* * *

Lucy did not share her next class with Verity, nor did the teacher request Desdemona's assistance, so she was alone for the first time. She had asked Nova to come along today, but Nova had refused. When asked why, Nova had tapped on Marlucy's book. Lucy didn't quite understand, but decided not to question Nova further.

The class was nice enough, to her relief the stares weren't as bad as during homeroom. Ben, the boy who had raised his hand the class before, came up to her and asked his question: "Can you do magic?"

"Yes, but I can't use it for everything. I should only use it for really important things."

"That's super cool," Ben had replied. "I hope I get to see you use it sometime. I always heard about Marlucy and Rosabell doing stuff but I've never seen it."

Lucy was glad his question was a nice one. He made a move to say more, but at that point the teacher had called the class to attention and Ben went to his own seat.

After the second class there was a small break of fifteen minutes. Lucy felt at a loss for what to do. Once again she felt very lonely. She didn't see Desdemona or Verity anywhere, and Ben was on a table with a lot of rowdy boys she'd never met before so she wasn't particularly keen on joining them.

She sat down on a long table near the main entrance to the lunch hall, where she could see everyone who came in, hoping to maybe see Verity or Desdemona walk through the door. Just as she wondered if she and Desdemona were the only monsters in school, a group of people walked through the door that looked dramatically different from the human kids who she'd seen until this point.

It looked like someone had rummaged around in a grab bag of monsters and put the first three they pulled out together out in the hall and declared them 'friends'; they all looked so different from each other. There was even something in the way they acted towards each other that made Lucy wonder if they really were friends, maybe they just happened to all walk through the door at the same time and that was it?

Then Lucy recognised one of them. She stood up so fast she hit her knees on the table.

"Griff!" Griff turned to look at her and she saw panic flash across his face. He reluctantly walked over to her. The other two monsters split up and sat down at separate tables. Guess they're not friends after all, Lucy thought.

"I didn't know you were going to school Griff," Lucy said happily.

"It wasn't exactly by choice," he muttered.

"What year are you in? Oh, what classes did you pick? Maybe we share some!"

Griff looked very uncomfortable.

"Look, I don't know what happened after Marlucy enchanted you and all, but we're not friends. I know your brain was rotten, so maybe you perceived it wrong, but I was never nice to you."

Lucy's face fell. She felt extremely hurt, but thinking back on it, Griff was right. He'd only ever said snide comments about Jimmy and Gwen wasting their time on her and how stupid she was.

"Oh," she said. "I hope we don't share any classes then." She didn't know what else to say. She didn't want to say anything mean because she still didn't quite realize that Griff was not her friend, and had, in fact, acted as quite the opposite. Griff simply cast his eyes down, gave a quick nod and walked away.

To Lucy's relief the bell rang not soon after.

The Biology and History lessons that followed were a little awkward at moments. Both teachers would take breaks from their curriculum to explain that "what I'm about to tell you now does not apply to everyone in this class" while throwing a look at either Lucy, Griff or one of the other few monsters. During Biology Griff asked his teacher if he really needed to take the class since he was a vampire. The teacher, rather irritated, told him yes, he did, as nobody in the class had the ability to photosynthesize but it was still important they knew about plant life. Griff had given a small nod and not spoken up since. Lucy wondered why he went to school at all. 

History was apparently based on a world that wasn't the one they occupied, one where places as Old Town and Unity didn't exist, but the teacher explained it was important as it pertained "the history of humanity". He explained monster history was an extra class one could opt to take. Griff looked like he didn't care though, and Lucy was far too confused by everything going on around her to even think about adding another class to her schedule.

One of the other monsters from break sat next to Griff, like him decidedly un-human, and sat upright with an expression of stone. Despite this posture of indifference Lucy felt something dark radiate off her.

When the class ended Lucy took a little longer to gather her things than everyone else. She lost the pen Verity had given her and was rummaging through her bag for it.

"You forgot, didn't you?"

Lucy turned around. It was Griff's friend. Her voice was high and had something ethereal about it, like it was made up out of hundreds of whispers spoken in unison. She was quite tall and abnormally pale; her skin looked almost grey. She had shoulder length, shiny black hair that framed her face like perfectly straight curtains. Her eyes were large and dark and Lucy couldn't decide if that made her look cute or unsettling. She was holding Lucy's pen in one of her bony hands.

"Oh, thank you, I must have dropped it," Lucy said as she reached for the pen.

The girl pulled the pen out of her grasp.

"I wasn't talking about the pen."

Lucy looked at her, unsure of what to do or say. This seemed to agitate the girl.

"It must be so simple to you. You wreak destruction and then conveniently you lose your life. And just like that, poof! All the responsibility is gone, you've washed your filthy hands clean. Somewhere deep inside you that witch must be laughing with absolute glee."

Lucy took a step back so she was behind her desk and it was between her and the girl who appeared unstable not just in emotions but physical being. Her form seemed warped with anger. She clenched the pen so tightly Lucy was worried it might break.

"Marlucy is gone," she stammered.

"Then why do you exist," the girl hissed. The s-sound in her voice was so harsh her utterance felt like a verbal slap across the face.

"I don't know," Lucy said earnestly. She looked at her bag on her desk and clasped her hands around the desk as if ready to shove it at her classmate if she were to attack her. She didn't even care about the pen anymore, she just wanted to leave.

"Marlucy is alive as long as you exist," the girl said. "And as long as she exists this world will know no peace." She placed the pen on Lucy's desk with surprising gentleness, though Lucy saw her hands were still trembling with anger. When she swiftly passed Lucy it felt like something much larger passed her by; it was as if she heard its heavy body drag across the floor but when she turned to look it was just her classmate turning the corner.

"I want to drop out," she said to herself as she stuffed her pen into her bag and left the room.

* * *

It was lunch break, and Lucy was very relieved to see Verity standing near the entrance of the lunch hall. When she greeted her however, Verity's seemed to be very nervous.

"You needed my help with something, right?"

Verity nodded, then looked around skittishly. "We can't do it here, come on." Verity led her downstairs, to the basement, where the music and theatre classrooms were, which were now completely deserted. She found the doors were locked and settled for the girl's bathroom.

"Wow, this is really secret, isn't it," Lucy said, feeling a little perturbed. Verity was breathing out heavily, as if trying to ready herself for whatever she was about to say.

"You can't tell anyone this, you have to promise me," she finally said. She sounded grave, though Lucy thought she still sounded kind of adorable thanks to her accent. She could tell Verity was being very serious however, so she tried to look serious too.

"I won't tell," she said. "I promise."

Verity began to pull the silk glove on one of her hands loose at the fingertips. Lucy saw her fingers were trembling too, but she wasn't angry like Griff's friend had been. Lucy did sense something dark in Verity, but it wasn't like Griff's friend where it stemmed from hatred. It was something she couldn't really pinpoint.

Verity was still plucking at her fingers. "I saw you looking at my gloves. I'm not like everyone else… I…" She stopped for a second, gathering her words. She seemed very hesitant to take off her gloves.

"You don't have to show me if you don't want to," Lucy sussed. "I totally understand if you've got something you don't want everyone to see." Verity shook her head.  
"No, I gotta show you or you can't help. Nobody knows this but I think they've got an idea. My family is... weird, and I know some people are suspicious." She lightly pulled on the fingertips of the glove, which were now loose enough that she could swiftly pull off the sleeve, but she didn't.

"You know White Hill Community?" Lucy shook her head.

"It's this gated community on the edge of town, near the forest. Everyone who lives there is related to me. Sort of. We're a family, is what I'm trying to say."  
"Oh, that's nice," Lucy said, not sure at all if it really was nice (what was a gated community, first of all?) but not sure what else to say.

Verity cast her eyes down. Lucy wondered if that meant White Hill Community wasn't that nice at all, but Verity didn't elaborate.

"I have a condition," she said after a moment.

"Oh, is it hereditary?" Lucy wondered if that's why Verity mentioned her family.

"Sorta," Verity said. Her voice was trembling. "Sorry I'm taking ages with this, I've never showed anyone from outside before, it's tough on me."

"That's okay," Lucy said trying to reassure her.

Verity breathed out deeply again. "Here goes. Like a bandaid," she said as she pulled on the middle finger of her sleeve and the glove finally came off.

"Wow," Lucy said, then she immediately slapped her hand over her mouth, worried she might've hurt Verity with her reaction.

Her hand and arm were completely black, fading to a soft pink just up her elbow. The rims of her fingernails were white. It was as if her arms were pure oil under a thin layer of translucent skin.

"My legs are the same," Verity said with a trembling voice. "It's my dad, he's got it too, that's why I'm so worried. Do you think you can make it go away with your magic?"

"I don't know," Lucy said. "I can try. Is it… Is it a skin condition? Does your dad use anything for it?" She wasn't sure what she could ask without upsetting Verity further, who seemed to be getting more anxious by the second.

"My dad's not here, I've never met my dad," Verity said quickly. "He can't come here."

"What do you mean?"

"He needs a vessel to come here. I think he might be very angry because my family didn't uphold their part of the bargain and now he's trying to take over. I didn't look like this before, and the blood's creeping up a little every day." Verity blinked and two tears raced down her cheeks. Her voice was still trembling. "I'm starting to look like him. I'm so scared, I don't want to become him! Please help me," she wiped the tears with her gloved hand.

Lucy took a step back and said: "Mirabilis Cerebrum Kaibutsu!" Verity watched as the pink flames washed over Lucy and replaced her with Cure Cortex.

"I'll take a bite out of anyone who stands in my way, Cure Cortex!" she said.

"Are y-you gonna bite me," Verity stammered.

"Oh, no, that's just for enemies. I haven't bitten anyone yet, actually!" Cortex summoned her wand. "Let's try this."

"Lux Stellae Praesens! Make Verity better!"

Verity squeezed her eyes shut as she was engulfed by the light of Cure Cortex' magic. To Cortex' relief she saw the black fading out of Verity's skin.

Verity gasped when she opened her eyes and saw her arm was now completely pink. She took off the other glove, and that arm looked completely normal too.

"Oh Lucy, thank you so much!" She leapt at Cortex and hugged her.

"Actually, I'm Cure Cortex when I look like this," Cortex corrected her with a big smile.

"Cure Cortex, right," Verity said, also smiling. She once again wiped tears from her eyes. "I honestly thought it wasn't gonna work, it seemed too simple," Verity admitted. "You have no idea how relieved I am. I'm forever in your debt, Lucy. I mean Cortex."

Cure Cortex de-transformed. "You can call me Lucy now," she laughed. "And I'm glad I could help!"

Helping Verity with her affliction felt like a good reason to use her magic, and Lucy was happy she had been able to help someone again, as it felt like such a long time to her since she last helped someone out. She didn't quite understand what she had cured Verity of, however. Maybe she could ask Desdemona if she'd ever heard of a disease like that.

* * *

Lucy spent the rest of the lunch hour with Verity, who introduced her to a friend of hers, a tan boy with short black hair named Luke. She felt a hundred times better than she had all day before. Verity had put her gloves back on, and explained to Lucy that she'd eventually tell her friends but for now didn't want anyone to ask just yet.

"Have you heard of Hachigoya High," Luke asked Lucy. Lucy shook her head.

Verity rolled her eyes. "You're not gonna try to drag her there, I hope? Lucy's got more important things to do than snoop around haunted houses, I'm sure."

"Haunted house," Lucy echoed.

Luke nodded. "It's a school actually, not a house. There's a ghost who spirits away anyone who'll say yes to being her friend. It's in the forest near the Godwin mansion, but it's not always there, it's really spooky," Luke went on.

"Godwin mansion," Lucy echoed.

"Oh now don't go there," Verity said. "That's even worse than Hachigoya. At least the ghost in Hachigoya will back off if you tell her no. Godwin's Bride will manhandle you so bad you don't ever wanna set foot back in there ever again."

"I think I've heard of these places," Lucy said. She instinctively patted her skirt, but she didn't have any pockets and remembered the gems were in her bag. "I didn't know that was what they were called."

"Hachigoya's kind of like a rite of passage," Luke said. "Some kids from the school will go into the forest in the hopes it'll be there, and if it is they'll try to find the ghost. I don't know if anyone's really seen her though, that could all just be made up boasting."

"I want to go there," Lucy said.

"It's really not worth the hassle," Verity warned. "And besides, you shouldn't want to go disturbing a ghost. That's probably bad luck or something."

Lucy very much wanted to continue the subject of Hachigoya and the Godwin mansion but the bell rang. Verity had Chemistry, but Luke and Lucy had Maths so they said goodbye to each other. Lucy wondered why they didn't share all their classes. Maybe she could ask Desdemona about it. There were a lot of things she wanted to ask Desdemona about.

* * *

Lucy found she quite liked Maths. It felt like she was solving puzzles and she found it great fun. Luke on the other hand looked miserable. "I wish I could drop this class," he sighed, tapping his pen on his empty paper. "I never understand it, and when I finally think I do I always end up getting the solution wrong anyway."

"Really," Lucy said with raised brows. "It's all very logical to me. I thought History was a lot harder than this. Look, it's just a matter of taking this number…" she pointed at her book and tried to explain to Luke how to solve the first problem on the page. "And then you get this number… and now you know what Y is, so we can use that to solve this part…"

Luke did not look like he was grasping anything Lucy was saying, but she kept going, in the hopes it would all make sense at the end. "And there you have it! Fifty three. And you use the same formula for all the other problems!"

Luke just blinked at her. "I think I'm destined to fail this class. You lost me after you solved half of Y."

Lucy bumped her balled fist on the table lightly. "We'll keep practicing together, and then you'll get it eventually. You gotta believe in yourself, Luke!"

To her surprise Luke laughed. "Wow, you're such a superhero. Believe in yourself! Together we will beat this monster named Mathematics," he said in a bombastic voice. "Is that a prerequisite of being a Pretty Cure? They're like superheroes, right?"

"They're legendary heroes, yes," Lucy said, once again repeating Marlucy's words. "I… I guess I do act that way." She turned a little pink (or purple, rather, with her skin being green).

"I was thinking," Luke said after a moment, "since you've got superpowers, and you can do magic and stuff, would you like to go investigate Hachigoya High? I know Verity is all 'oh no don't go there y'all that place is darn spooky'," Luke did a mock imitation of Verity's voice which Lucy thought was eerily accurate, "but I've wanted to go there for ages and I bet we can convince her to come along."

"I do want to go there," Lucy said. She had her own reasons but felt it would take too long to explain to Luke why. "But why do you want to go?"

Luke glanced at the teacher, who was working away on his laptop at his desk. Then he pulled something big and square-shaped out of his bag.

"I'm really into photography, particularly analog photography. I've got a bunch of old cameras at home I got at thrift shops, but this one… This one is special." He had a gleam in his eye as he looked up at Lucy.

Lucy didn't know much about cameras, except that her phone had one on it that she had used to take pictures of Nova with when she got bored. There were some old photos on it Gwen had made before she'd gifted the phone to Lucy, which made her laugh as they were mostly selfies of Gwen with Jimmy photobombing them in the background.

Luke's camera however had no screen on it, and had a big lens on the front attached to something that looked like a harmonica. The viewfinder was a small see-through square that stuck out of the top of the camera, and it had golden engravings on the side. Despite its age Lucy did think it looked quite beautiful, though she couldn't fathom how it would work.

"It's pretty," Lucy said, once again at a loss for what else to say. People were usually very nice but they often seemed to expect a certain reaction from her without making it clear what exactly that reaction was supposed to be. She hoped she would eventually get it with time.

"Yeah, it was pretty expensive too," Luke said. "Probably the most expensive camera I own. I think because of the carvings on the side because I'm pretty sure the guy who sold it to me doesn't know what this camera is…" Luke admired the camera for a moment before realising he had gone off-subject. "Anyway, what makes this camera special is that there's a rumor that it can take pictures of ghosts," he whispered. "I recognised it immediately when I saw it, I just had to have it."

"So you want to take a picture of the ghost at Hachigoya High," Lucy said. Luke nodded. Now he turned a little red. "But… I didn't want to go there alone." He dropped his voice to such a low whisper that Lucy could barely hear him. "Don't tell anyone but I think you're more likely to be spirited away if you're there alone. If I've got someone with me we could work together to get out of there if something bad happens."

"But I thought she only took people who said they'd be her friend," Lucy said at normal volume. Luke cringed. "Yes, well… Anyway, are you coming with?"  
Lucy shrugged and nodded. Why not? She wanted to go there anyway, might as well take a friend along. "Cool! If you've got nothing to do after class we can go right after school."

* * *

Lucy didn't have anything to do after class and decided to go with Luke. First she had to ask Desdemona if she would come along, though. She found her in Mister Zevran's usual classroom, which was also where she had homeroom. Desdemona was tapping away on a laptop, like so many of the other teachers had been doing, and had a small mountain of papers next to her.

"Are you coming home with us," Lucy asked.

Desdemona looked up and smiled. "Oh, Lucy. Did you have a nice first day?"

"It kinda sucked initially but it got better near the end. I've got some questions for you though!" Lucy stomped her foot and blew up her cheeks. Desdemona grinned; Lucy looked a bit like a grumpy frog. "But that'll have to wait, I've got stuff to do first," Lucy went on. "So are you coming?"

Desdemona shook her head. "I still have work to do here. I'll be home around seven, I think. See you tonight."

* * *

"You're friends with a teacher," Luke asked.

They were walking home, the three of them. Luke had been right that he could convince Verity to come along, though she did drag her feet.

"She was my friend before she became a teacher," Lucy said. "And she looks different in the school. She looked more my age before but in the school she looks older, its weird."  
"Well, she is a demon, isn't she," Verity said. "Some of those can change what they look like."  
"Ah yes, you would know, wouldn't you Verity," Luke said with a smirk.

"You shut up," Verity snapped, and she punched his arm. Luke just laughed.

"White Hill Community," he began, sounding like the voice-over in an advert, "where the lawns are well kept, the houses are pristine, and we totally do not worship a demon overlord in our creepy church on Sundays."

"You're not funny," Verity laughed, though something in her voice betrayed she wasn't entirely joking. "How about we focus on your little ghost adventure idea instead of insulting my family, you big wuss."  
"Wuss? How does me wanting to go see a ghost make me a wuss?"

"Because you coulda gone by yourself anytime, but you waited until you found someone to come with you to go." Verity poked him in the ribs. "You're scared of a little ghost girl, Luke!"

It was Luke's turn to tell Verity to shut up.

They talked a bit about school and poked some more fun, and they were in the forest before they knew it. Lucy was surprised, it felt like it had taken a lot longer to get to the forest when Noor was showing her around.

As usual, the forest floor was covered in discarded furniture. Verity held out her phone for light. "Don't trip," she warned. "You can make a nasty fall here."

Lucy nodded, remembering doing just that the last time she was here. "Why doesn't anyone just clear this stuff out," she asked.

"They've tried," Verity said. "It just reappears. It's really weird but that's how it is."

"This whole town is weird," Luke said. "I heard they don't get stuff like this in Unity." He took out his camera and took a photo of the area Verity was lighting up with her phone.

Verity frowned. "Why'd you do that?" Lucy saw how Luke's camera spat out a picture. He took it out and waved it around for a bit. "Just trying something," Luke said. He sighed and put the photo into his bag after looking at it.

As they were walking Luke took several more photos. When he looked at the last one, he gasped and promptly stopped walking.

"What? What is it?"

Verity walked over to Luke and shone her phone on the photo he was holding.

"The trees are different," he said.

"Wow, they are," Verity said. "What does that mean?"

"They're the trees near Hachigoya," Lucy said, looking over Verity's shoulder.

"Is that so," Verity said, sceptical. She held her phone closer to the photo so it no longer illuminated the area around them.

When she shone it back to the ground, it was her turn to gasp. "Goodness!" The trees around them now looked the same as the ones in the photo.

"We're here," Lucy said. She held her bag close to her body, resisting the urge to check for the millionth time if she had the Cure gems on her.

When they looked to their left, an illuminated path appeared that Lucy was sure had not been there before. It was the same path Noor had told her led to the school. She believed steadfastly in what she wanted to do at Hachigoya but still felt a mild urge to turn around and run away as she walked down the path with her new friends.

Luke didn't take any photos of the road to the school.

"Is it darker here than back in Old Town? I feel like the sky is more black here," Verity said as she looked up. "I can't see the moon anywhere either, yet everything looks like it's lit up by something..."

When they got to the front of the building Luke finally took another picture. "Looks normal to me," he said, a hint of relief in his voice that he failed to mask with his disappointed tone.

"Wow, that's spooky," Verity said when she looked at the photo.  
"What? It's completely normal," Luke said, his voice pitched about three octaves higher than usual.

"Look here," Verity said as she jabbed at the photo. "You can't tell me that is not a face in that window."

"That's just a smudge," Luke said. He quickly put the photo away.

"Perhaps," Verity said, slightly amused by Luke's sudden fear. "Even if it's just a smudge, it looks like a face, you could just tell people its a ghost and then we can go home now and we won't have to go inside of this spooky place. I got enough of the heebie-jeebies when the trees changed. Wait, Lucy!"

Lucy walked up the stairs. She didn't have time for Luke and Verity's jokes and dawdling. If they weren't going into the school, she'd go alone. The front door opened for her.

"It's just like the story," Luke whispered in awe.

"Wait for us," Verity yelled, dragging Luke along by the arm. "You asked her to come along, we're not gonna abandon her now dangit, I owe this girl my li- a lot," she hissed at Luke.

Inside Lucy immediately felt a presence. "Do you feel that?" Lucy asked without turning around.

"I feel really uneasy, but I can't say that's a new sensation," Verity said. Luke took another photo. "Nothing," he said after a minute.

They inspected the school, Verity and Luke sticking close together while Lucy walked a little ahead of them. They lagged behind more and more as Luke stopped to take photos. They were talking in a more relaxed manner now, as nothing had shown up in Luke's photos since the one he took of the exterior. "Guess Sabishii-chan isn't feeling it tonight," Verity said.

Lucy walked into a room lined with lockers and benches. Most of the lockers were open, and the benches had been moved around, their placement was rather haphazard. On one of them stood some empty soda cans. Lucy thought of Luke telling her about the right of passage.

When she walked through the door at the end of the locker, she found herself in a large hall with giant, fogged over windows in the back of it.

A strong smell of chlorine hit her, even though the large pool in front of her was empty. The presence felt very strong here. Lucy walked around the edge of the pool and opened her bag. She contemplated calling out to the ghost.

"Lucy? Where'd you go?" Verity's voice came from deeper inside the school.

"I'm here," she called, unsure if that had been loud enough for Verity to hear.

She found the Cure gems in the little pocket inside of the biggest compartment and took them out. The blue and orange gems looked grey in the dim ethereal light the school seemed to conjure up out of nowhere, but the green gem shone brightly. It was the same as when she'd passed the school with Desdemona and Noor and she'd accidentally dropped the green gem.

She felt how the vague presence that had been following her around became something tangible as it manifested behind her. She turned around and felt a jolt of fear and excitement as she looked upon the floating girl with the gently drifting hair: Sabishii-chan.

As much as she'd been warned about the dangers of Sabishii-chan, she felt little else than sorry for the spirit. She was so small and even though Lucy couldn't see her eyes, something about her face was sad.

"Will you be my friend?"

"Lucy, what are you- Oh goodness."

At that moment Verity and Luke walked through the door. They were on the other side of the pool from Lucy and the spirit. Luke reflexively snapped a photo.

"Tell her no! Tell her no and run, we gotta get out," Verity called. She waved with her arm, as if to imply Lucy should run straight through the pool to the other side.

But Lucy didn't say no, or run away. She swallowed, and then answered: "Yes, I would like that."

A hint of a smile appeared on Sabishii-chan's face, and then everything was gone, all at once. It was as if she and everything around her seized to exist. No Hachigoya High School, no Sabishii-chan, No Verity or Luke, no Pretty Cure or Rosabell, just darkness.

When Lucy regained her awareness, she was far, far from Old Town, in a place bathed in sunlight and with only one thing on her mind: She was late for school.


	6. Enmity: The Curse

[AN: So this one is a bit like a mini movie;;; I hope you don't mind and enjoy the story. Small warning: This chapter deals with death; specifically drowning. There's no graphic descriptions of it, but if references to drowning make you uncomfortable I recommend skipping this one.]

It took a moment for Luke and Verity to register what just happened. Then they both started to panic.

"She's gone! She said yes and then she disappeared!"

"What do we do? How do we get her back?"

They ran out of the locker room into the hall, when Verity grabbed Luke by the arm. "We can't just leave her here. We have to do something!"

"Do what? You saw her get taken by Sabishii-chan, nobody's ever come back from that!"

"How are you so sure of that, we don't know anyone else who ever got taken away! There might be a way to get her back."

Luke looked completely hopeless. He pensively looked at his camera, and his eyes grew wide. "Wait, remember that photo I took earlier and we saw a something weird in it? Maybe we can get Sabishii-chan to reappear, and…" He paused. "Well, I don't know what to do after that. I want to save Lucy but I don't know if getting spirited away too is the solution."

"We should go get Desdemona," Verity said. "It's still half an hour before she leaves the school, we might make it if we hurry. Maybe Sabishii-chan will let us go back to our own world because she's got what she wanted. And Desdemona isn't human herself, she might know how to deal with spirits like this."

* * *

Lucy in the meantime bounded up the front steps of Hachigoya High in all its sun-bathed and very much bustling-with-life glory.

"No running in the hall!" Someone shouted after her, and she instantly switched gears to a brisk step. She was late for gym. Way late. At the corner of the main hall she turned around and saw that the teacher who called her out had his attention focused elsewhere now, so she resumed her run after turning the corner, through the small connecting hall to the locker rooms. As always the locker room smelled distinctly of chlorine, and to Lucy's fear she saw the gymbags her classmates left behind, but no classmates. It was her second day; Lucy could kick herself for being tardy already. What had she been so busy doing that she was late, anyway?

She sat down on the bench and put her bag down when a second wave of panic and embarrassment hit her: Today they had swimming lessons. She had forgotten her swimsuit. "Oh my gosh, what is wrong with me today," Lucy whined at the ceiling. She could hear laughter and the sloshing and splashing of water from the next room over. She supposed she should tell the gym teacher, and she dreaded the detention that was likely hanging over her head. She decided to stay on the bench a few seconds longer to mentally prepare herself for going up to her teacher.

Then she took a deep breath and got up.

Suddenly someone flew through the door from the hall into the locker room, bounding past Lucy so fast she was little more than a blur. She slammed open the door to the pool, and just like that she was gone.

For a split second Lucy was stunned, but then she realised this meant she wasn't the only person who was late, and she quickly followed the girl to the pool. It'd be easier to talk to the teacher if she wasn't alone.

Before she had time to scan the room to find the teacher however, something else grabbed her attention. A girl, the girl who had ran past her in the locker room, was standing at the edge of the pool, shouting at something in the water.

"Kaori, no!" She yelled.

Then she leapt into the pool.

Lucy was at a loss for what to do. She couldn't see what the girl had been shouting at before she leapt into the pool in full uniform. Three girls at the edge of the pool in inflatable tubes and on floating beds seemed irritated by the screaming girl, until one of them noticed whatever it was she had seen in the water and screamed.

The girl in uniform resurfaced and was holding something. Lucy's heart flinched when she registered it was a person, until it stopped being a person. Initially she saw long black hair covering a stark white face and two lifeless equally white arms, but as the girl in the uniform tried to lift the person out of the water, the hair seemed to grow longer and longer until she was tangled in it. All the while the girl in the tube kept screaming.

All at once Lucy remembered who she was, and _where_ she was. Was this what Sabishii-chan did to the people she took? Whatever was _that figure_ in the pool?

She saw the gym teacher walk up to the girl in the uniform, with a distinct lack of alarm, as she fought with the long strands of hair that were now wrapped around her arms like tendrils. Nobody else did anything. Why was nobody doing anything?

Finally, Lucy snapped out of her trance and ran over to the edge of the pool. "Sabishii-chan," she called, at nobody in particular. But she had to be somewhere, right?

When Lucy turned the corner she slipped on the wet floor, which disappeared from under her before her side made impact. The next moment she was back outside, on the school grounds. In her hand she held a red piece of paper, which she knew meant detention. She also knew this was a new day. She didn't know how she knew. But there was a lot of knowledge she held in this strange place that wasn't hers.

* * *

At detention were only a few other students so the classroom was largely empty. Lucy saw that The Girl In The Uniform was there, in the corner in the back. Now that they weren't at swimming practice she no longer stood out in her uniform.

Her posture however made sure she still stood out. Everyone was diligently working on their homework, and she did have a book open in front of her and a pen in her hand, but Lucy could see she was staring blankly at the table in front of her; lost in thought while furiously tapping her foot on the ground.

Lucy sat down next to the Girl, looked for her Maths book and opened it up on the table, though she had no idea if there was homework. It seemed Sabishii-chan had decided Lucy was a ditsy girl who was late for school and forgot about her homework.

Lucy looked at the Girl, and then at the teacher. He was grading papers. He didn't have a laptop, and the board behind him wasn't digital. The language written on the board looked unfamiliar to Lucy, but she still knew what the words on it meant. How far was she from Old Town? Did she go back in time?

"You were in the locker room, weren't you?"

The Girl In The Uniform was looking at her with a slight smile on her face. Her hair and eyes were dark. Part of her hair was tied into a ponytail behind her head.

Lucy looked at the teacher again before answering.

"Oh, don't worry about him, she's not here, so everyone's a little… Out of focus, so to speak."

"When you say 'she', do you mean Sabishii-chan," Lucy whispered.

The Girl nodded.

"I thought I heard you say that at the pool. But I advise you not to use that name here, she doesn't like it."

"Where are we?"

"You don't know? We're in Hachigoya High School. It's in a small port town, though she doesn't let us off the school grounds. How did you end up here if you've never been there?"

"I know of the school, but to my knowledge it's in a forest. I think it transports you somewhere else when you go there, though," Lucy said, throwing another look at the teacher, who didn't look like he heard any of their whispering.

"Well it is haunted, so maybe it teleports, who knows," The Girl In The Uniform said, and shrugged.

"It might be a little cruel to say, but I'm glad you're here. I haven't met anyone else who's still real since coming here. My name is Haruka. Well, Haruka Kurosawa, but please just call me by my first name."

"Lucy," Lucy said. "What do you mean with real?"

"Most of the people you see here are puppets. Kaori's memories brought back to play their parts in her story. Not all of them, though. Some are people who have been here so long they've forgotten who they are, I think. So I don't count them as real, I guess."

"How could you tell I was real?"

Haruka laughed. Then it dawned on Lucy.  
"Oh, my skin," she said, flustered. But when she looked at her hands, they were pink, like Marlucy's.

"I meant your hair," Haruka said with a furrowed brow. "You're clearly not from around."

Lucy thought about how everyone she'd seen up until now had dark hair. Maybe Haruka had a point.

"Where is Sabishii-chan," Lucy asked.

Haruka leant on her table with an elbow and screwed her eyes up to the ceiling as if getting ready to make some complicated calculations.

"Well, since she died about five minutes ago, and now we're here, I'm gonna say she's on her way to school from wherever she lives. We'll have our first class of the day with her in about half an hour."

Lucy didn't know what to say to that, she stared at Haruka with her eyebrows scrunched together.

Haruka laughed.

"Time doesn't work as normal here. The day ends at the end of the final class and immediately goes into the next morning right before the first class. Or detention, in our case. It ends really quick on the day she dies though since she died in the morning. I'm still trying to figure out how to stop that, but as you saw I haven't had any success so far."

"What was that thing in the water?"

Haruka pulled a face of discomfort. "That was her. I guess she's getting fed up with me trying to interfere because that's the first time she turned into a ball of hair in my arms. Maybe it was a warning."

Haruka sighed. "I've tried to save her pretty much every single time she resets the timeline but she makes it harder and harder each time. I used to be there at the start of the class so I'd be in the pool with her and I'd be able to swim over, but I'd be too late every time. Then when she figured out I was trying to go to her before she could get into the pool she made it so I'd be late for class every day on the day she died. I don't think she wants to be saved, I think she wants to trap people in her suffering."

"She sounds pretty cruel," Lucy said. She thought Sabishii-chan was a sad spirit, so this came as an unpleasant surprise.

Haruka shook her head. "I don't think that's fair to her. She was a regular girl when she was alive, and she was dealt a bad hand in life. She just happened to come back as an onryo, I don't think she can help the fact that she's so full of hate."

Lucy frowned. "What's an onryo?"

"I guess those aren't a thing where you're from, huh? They're vengeful spirits, basically. If someone dies while they're in a state of extreme anger or sadness their spirit can get trapped in the world of the living, so to speak. They're stuck in a constant state of rage and they'll inflict pain or fear on anyone who comes near them, doesn't matter who it is."

"Oh, I see," Lucy said. She instinctively grabbed the gems in her skirt pocket.

"So you knew the legend before entering the school, huh?"

Lucy nodded.

Haruka raised an eyebrow. "Why did you say yes to her?"

Lucy turned slightly red. "I thought I could help her. There is something I want to give to her and I thought it might make her happy. But now I know more about this place I'm not so sure."

Haruka smiled. "That's very sweet of you. I bet she'd be happy about it if she wasn't so full of hate all the time."

"What about you?"

"It's kind of a long story," Haruka said. Before she could say any more, the bell rang. "Time to go meet her," Haruka said with a sigh.

* * *

Lucy followed Haruka to their next class. When she went to sit down Haruka stopped her.

"That's where she will sit. I don't particularly fancy finding out what happens if you sit in her spot. Best not to mess with her play too much."

So Lucy sat down in front of Haruka instead, next to the window. "There's usually a puppet there but I'm sure he'll move for a real person. Or he'll cease to exist, guess we'll see how she handles it."

Haruka sounded energetic and unbothered about the situation they were in, which struck Lucy as odd. She wondered how long she'd been trapped in Hachigoya.

The other students began filing in. Nobody particularly stood out to Lucy except a group of three girls with rather fancy looking hairstyles. She could see a girl lingering in the hall who occasionally leant forward to peek into the room, but she never came in. Lucy wondered if that was Sabishii-chan, but then another girl sat down in the seat Haruka said was hers.

Because Lucy had been focused on the girl in the hall she hadn't seen Sabishii-chan's face. From the back she did not stand out from the other students. She had long, black hair that was thick and shiny, which almost made it look a deep shade of blue. Unlike other students, who were wearing blazers or cardigans over their teal sailor uniforms, she wore hers plainly. She was wearing shoes and socks, unlike when she'd first appeared to Lucy in the dark halls of the abandoned Hachigoya High.

"Alright everyone, quiet please," the teacher began. "We've got a new student in our midsts today." He looked into the hall. The girl gave a small start and hurried into the room.

The first thing Lucy noticed was a dark, splotchy red mark that covered most of the left side of her face. The girl flitted one hand up to her cheek to cover it as if she'd forgotten to do so in her hurry, before turning to the board to write her name.

Like everyone else she had dark hair, though it was cut in a bob that set her apart from everyone else.

After the girl finished writing she quickly turned around again. Her hand shot up to her cheek for a moment, but she quickly put her arms behind her back and assumed proper posture. "My name is Ayako Kurosawa, I moved here a week ago with my family from Takayama. Um, it's nice to meet you! I hope we can be friends."

She looked at the teacher uncertainly. He flashed her a smile and nodded to the classroom.

"Thank you, Kurosawa. Please sit down in the third row, behind Kuze."

Lucy saw Sabishii-chan shift a little and wave at Ayako. She pointed at the empty desk behind her. Lucy couldn't quite see her face but she looked excited. She seemed to perk up the moment Ayako walked into the room.

"Ayako," Haruka whispered after the teacher had started class. "Hey, Ayako."

Ayako turned to look at Haruka. She looked a little frightened and her eyes shifted momentarily to the teacher.

"Do you remember me," Haruka asked. Ayako stared at her blankly.

"Come on, try to really think," Haruka urged her on.

"I don't-"

"KUROSAWA! Don't distract the new student. You can talk to her all you want after class," the teacher said. Lucy turned back around with a jerk. The way he had shouted Haruka's name had startled her; it was like a bark Lucy deemed overly loud for the occasion. She looked at Sabishii-chan, who was focused on the blackboard, seemingly uninterested in what had transpired behind her.

* * *

When the bell rang Lucy moved to get up, but Haruka urged her to sit down again. "You're gonna miss it," she said when Lucy gave her a puzzled look. She nodded at Ayako and Sabishii-chan.

Sabishii-chan turned around in her seat and patiently waited for Ayako to finish packing her bag. "Do you like it here," she asked when Ayako had finished.

Ayako stumbled over her words. "Th-The school or the town?"

"The town, I mean, you've only been at the school for an hour, right," Sabishii-chan said with a smile.  
"Oh, of course," Ayako said and she cast her eyes down at her desk. "I like the ocean, but I haven't gone out much yet. We were busy moving and all," she said in a small voice. Her hand went back to her cheek, and this time it stayed there.

"I can show you around, if you'd like? And I'll show you where all our classes are. Oh, and you can call me Kaori, if you like." Sabishii-chan smiled. Her eyes were so dark they looked black but they glittered at this moment. It was easy to forget she was the same sullen girl who drifted on the air in the darkness of the swimming pool hall.

"I'd like that," Ayako said, and now she smiled too. Then they got up and left.

"She made a friend," Lucy said. "I thought she didn't have any."

"This is only the beginning," Haruka said.

[break]

After a few more lessons they had lunch break, which unlike in Lucy's real school was held in the classroom itself. Haruka put Lucy's and her desks together and shared some of her lunch with her, as Lucy hadn't brought any.

"I swear if I forget to bring one tomorrow too, I'm just gonna magic one up," Lucy said. Haruka laughed. "I guess Kaori thinks you're the forgetful type."

Lucy blushed. "She's not wrong." She wondered if she should tell Haruka more about where she was really from and what she really was, but decided another subject was more important.

"Why did you try to talk to Ayako? Didn't you say everyone here is a puppet?"

Haruka nodded. "She is, but she didn't use to be. She was a real person before, and I hope she's still in there somewhere. She's the whole reason I'm here, actually."

"Really? How so?"

"Ayako Kurosawa is my mother."

Lucy gaped at her. "What? But she's like, sixteen or something!"  
"Fifteen, actually," Haruka said with a smile. "If you're spirited away by Kaori, she makes sure you fit in with the scenery. I've wondered if maybe some of the teachers used to be real people, but my mum is a special case. That's probably why she's a student and not an adult."

Lucy looked over to the center of the class, where Kaori was excitedly talking to a bashful Ayako as they ate lunch. Ayako's hand was still glued to her face.

It was hard to hear Kaori over the noise in the room, but from Ayako's body language Lucy could tell Kaori had said something about her birthmark. Ayako cast her eyes down again and her hair fell so even more of her face was covered up.

Then Kaori did something surprising. She reached out to Ayako and tried to take her hand off her cheek.

Ayako quickly pulled her arm back and twisted away from Kaori, her hand snapping back in place on her cheek as if it was its natural place.

Lucy didn't need to be a lip-reader to tell Kaori was now profusely apologising. At the table behind them the girls with the fancy hairstyles looked at Kaori in disdain.

The tallest of the three, a slender girl with long, dark red hair that slightly curled at the ends said something to Ayako.

"You don't have to sit with her if you don't want to," Haruka said in time with the movement of the girl's lips.

Ayako looked at her and spread the fingers on the hand covering her cheek a bit more, as if she felt a stronger need to hide it when looking at the girl.

"Oh, no, it's fine, Kuze didn't mean any harm," Haruka lip read aloud.

The girl turned back to her friends without a word. Ayako and Kaori continued their lunch in silence. Lucy could see tears gleaming in the corners of Kaori's eyes.

"I've thought of going over there and just punching Hasegawa in the face," Haruka said, vigorously chewing on a piece of egg.

"The red-head?"

Haruka nodded. "Kazumi Hasegawa is part of the reason Sabishii-chan exists."

When Haruka said "Sabishii-chan" Lucy saw Kaori momentarily flinch. The light vanished from her eyes and her hair fluttered, but the windows in the room were closed and thus there was no breeze.

"Oh yeah, definitely don't use that name in her presence," Haruka said. "She's always listening. Even when she's not physically in the room with you, she hears everything we say. There was a boy, when I first got here, and on the first day of the cycle he just burst out screaming that name over and over at her during Ayako's introduction. It messed up her whole scenario. I guess he'd had enough."

"What happened to him?"

Haruka pointed at a table at the other end of the class with her chopsticks.

"She immediately reset the day. He didn't say a word that time. I don't think he's said anything ever since that happened. He's sitting at that table."

Lucy looked at him. She could only see his back. He was sitting at a table with two other boys who were happily talking to each other. He'd become a part of the scenery.

"Anyway," Haruka said. "I want to stop this curse. She took away my mother and I came here to save her. I've been here for about two weeks now, I think, and I haven't figured it out yet, but I hope that now there's two of us it'll be easier. I definitely think trying to become Kaori's friend should help. I'm pretty sure by now that we can't stop her suffering but we can show her that she's not alone." Haruka's eyes were fixed on Kaori's table, she slowly balled her hands into fists on the table. "I wonder… No." Haruka shook her head.

"What?" Lucy asked.

Haruka rolled her eyes, and shook her head again. "Kaori knows I'm Ayako's daughter. I told her as much when I met her in the abandoned Hachigoya High, in the real world. I wonder if that might be why she won't let me help her. Originally when the rumor appeared that mum had been spirited away by by her, I didn't believe it. I thought it was just an urban legend, like Hanako-san or Teke Teke. But then I looked more into it and there's actual documentation of people who disappeared after they visited the town Hachigoya High is in. That's by no means solid proof, but mum went there before she vanished, and it all just sort of… Added up."

The bell rang. Lucy let out an "aww", she didn't want to wait for the rest of Haruka's story to sit through a class that wasn't even real. People around them began to pack up.

"Don't worry about it," Haruka said. "The next class is gym, and nothing happens. Well, Kaori and Ayako bond a bit more. They're not gonna care we're not there. And if they do we'll just get detention again." She shrugged.

Lucy was glad Haruka would continue her story but it did feel a bit weird to stay behind in the class as everyone walked out. Even though it wasn't her real school, she felt like she was doing something bad.

"My mom's always been really insistent that I treat everyone nicely," Haruka went on after everyone had left. "She'd say I didn't have to like everyone, but I shouldn't make them feel bad. She said there was nothing worse than making someone feel awful and knowing that you're the reason why. I used to think that was a pretty normal thing for a parent to say, but I found out that wasn't really true soon enough. I think most parents try to instill in their kids that they should be good, but it's just a formality, you know. But mom treated it more like a philosophy. I always thought it was because of her face."

Haruka gestured at the side of her face.

"I figured she got bullied because of it. Kids can be cruel and all that. But one time she showed me photos of her when she was in school and the mark was a lot bigger, she's had it surgically removed when she got a bit older. You can still see it a bit but it's nowhere near as big and dark as it was on the photos, or how it is here, in Kaori's world. But she said she regretted getting it removed. That really surprised me, but I didn't ask why. I took her advice to heart though. I've never been mean to people who stood out in some way, or because other people were nasty to them. I'm not really someone to hold my tongue so I've stood up for people sometimes, if I thought it was necessary. It's not made me particularly popular but I don't really care about that."

Haruka began to smile, but it faltered rather quickly when she moved on to the next part of her story.

"Mom went on a trip to the town about a year ago. Dad was really surprised she wanted to go there because she never liked talking about her time there, though the town looked like a nice place in the photos she had. But she said there was something she had to do there. She said she wouldn't be able to be at peace with herself until she'd done it, but she wouldn't say what it was. I think dad knew, but they didn't tell me. So she went and…She never came back."

"And now you're here to save her," Lucy said. She'd heard so many sad stories the past few days she had responded to with "that's awful," or "that's horrible," that for once she wanted to say something positive and maybe try and cheer the storyteller up.

Haruka nodded resolutely. "It took awhile before I figured out where she was, though. She'd been missing for about half a year and they'd gone looking everywhere, including the school, but she wasn't there. Dad was really insistent they check the school, which is what tipped me off. So I went to look through her old photo albums.

I looked up the name of the school and I found the urban legend. I recognised it, because I've heard it at my school too, but nobody knew the name of the school so the version I knew was just about 'a port town somewhere'. But now I knew it was about Hachigoya, and putting that together with how mom was so insistent on never bullying people I got the feeling this story was more than just a legend.

I looked through her photo albums and I didn't see anything strange at first, until I realised there was only one photo of her first year in Hachigoya. There were lots of the later years, all where she had a bunch of friends and she started wearing makeup and stuff. But that first year photo... It was just her, plain, with one other girl. The other girl had her arm around her and mum looked a bit uncomfortable but happy, still.

It should be insignificant but I couldn't let go of it. The photo had such a different feeling than the other photos where mum looked confident and her friends were fashionable popular kids, as opposed to this happy plain girl who I guess didn't have a great sense of personal space. I also couldn't find her anywhere else in the album. None of the other Hachigoya girls looked like her, and none of mums later college friends did.

They eventually stopped searching for mum in Hachigoya, but my dad kept fighting to get them to look there again when it was clear the search wasn't going anywhere. They were trying to convince him she'd just ran off which made him really angry because mum would never do that.

Anyway, about a year after she went missing he managed to convince them to go back, and dad and me went with them. I had ulterior motives but I didn't tell dad."

Guilt flashed on Haruka's face.

"I wish I'd left a note or something… Anyway, when we got to the town it became a lot easier to find out more about the legend. People didn't believe it was real, but nobody denied that a girl died in the year my mum started attending school there. I learned the girl still had a grandmother who lived in town, but I didn't want to go bother her with something that was just a theory I had. Nobody could remember what the girl's name was though. They'd taken to calling her what the legend calls her. Apparently nobody would bring it up with her grandmother because they didn't want to make her sad. I thought it might be easier to find her if I knew her name, and being nicknamed "Loneliness", nobody wants that, right? I thought maybe she's be benevolent if I knew who she was.

While dad was helping the police on their search I went to visit an archive where they held a lot of the old school books of Hachigoya High before it closed down. I couldn't believe my eyes when I actually found the one for the year my mom started school, it felt so surreal I was almost afraid to open it.

The photo was right at the start of the album, the third years. Everyone sitting neatly in three rows with the teacher planted in the middle. I found my mum, surrounded by pretty girls who somehow managed to look fashionable in uniform. Everyone looked serious, but mum, she looked scared. At least, I think she did. I might've been projecting that emotion onto her, I don't know."

"Was Kaori in the photo," Lucy asked, almost breathless.

"She wasn't among the students, but I found her quick enough. In the top right corner was a little oval-shaped portrait of a black-eyed, black-haired girl. I instantly recognised her, even without the grin she had on the one photo I had of her. Number fifteen, Kaori Kuze. I bet the book had more information about her death and memorial stuff and things like that but after I found her name I just snapped the book shut and hurried out of the archive."

"And then you went to the school," Lucy guessed. Haruka nodded.

"It wasn't even dark out but the moment I set foot inside and the doors closed behind me it felt like it was midnight. I was scared but I kept thinking of my mum to keep me motivated.

'I know your name,' I said. 'I want to talk to you.' Nothing happened, which I expected honestly. So I kept talking. 'You took my mum from me last year,' I said, 'I know she was your friend when you were alive. I'd like to talk to you,' I said, again. Nothing. Then I said 'Kaori Kuze,' and she instantly appeared. I think she must've been listening. I had this whole monologue in mind to convince her to give my mum back but I just stood there frozen in fear. I don't think my brain could comprehend she was real, it seemed impossible, even with all the information I found in my search. The urban legend says she asks you a question, but she didn't ask me anything. She just… smiled, and then I was gone. It was like I was falling in darkness, and then I was at Hachigoya High."

"So your mum was friends with Kaori."

"Well…"

"What's wrong?"

"You've heard the legend, right? Kaori died feeling abandoned."

* * *

Haruka decided they should go to the next class because she argued it probably wouldn't be smart to mess with Sabishii-chan's scenario too much. It was English, which was quite amusing as Lucy turned out to be very good at the subject, to the surprise of everyone including Lucy herself.

"I was really bad at languages at my old school," she said when the teacher expressed how impressed she was. "But the level here is quite different."

"Marvelous," the teacher said, and Lucy thought the conversation would end there but Haruka wouldn't let it. She shot her hand up into the air.

"Kurosawa?"

"Maybe Lucy can teach students who have trouble with English? I mean, I'd like that, and I bet I'm not alone in that." She very pointedly looked at Ayako, who looked bewildered at being singled out by Haruka once again.

"If Lucy would like to do that she is free to do so," the teacher said noncommittally. She gestured for Lucy to sit down again.

"S-sure," Lucy said to Haruka when she sat back down. "I don't think I'll be very good at teaching others things, though."

"That's fine," Haruka said. "It's not really about that anyway. But Ayako is bad at English, and I bet Kaori will tag along if you ask."

So after class she went up to Ayako and Kaori.

"Oh, hello Lucy," Kaori said.

Lucy instantly forgot anything she was going to say as she didn't expect Kaori to address her by name. "N-nice to meet you," she stammered, then quickly directed her welcome message to Ayako so it'd fit with Kaori's play better. "I hope your first day was a nice one."

Ayako nodded shyly. "Kaori's shown me around. This looks like a really nice school," she said, her hand resting on her cheek once again.

"Uh, so yeah, I thought Haruka had a pretty good idea about the English lesson thing. And I was wondering if you wanted to join because Haruka says you're bad a- you're new so it'd be nice to have a club to be a part of." Lucy wanted to sink through the floor. Maybe if she screwed up enough Kaori would make it happen for her.

"Oh, that'd be really nice, thank you." Ayako smiled. "I actually really struggle with English so I'd love some help." She turned to Kaori. "What about you?"

"I… don't know. My English is fine, I guess," Kaori said. Lucy was a little surprised she didn't jump at the chance; her whole thing was asking for friends, why did it look like she was trying to pass up the opportunity?

"I'd like it if you joined me," Ayako urged her on. "And you're really good at explaining stuff so maybe you can help me when I need some extra help."

A shy smile appeared on Kaori's face. "Oh, alright then."

"Thanks! When do you want to do the classes?" Ayako asked Lucy.

"Oh, uh," Lucy hadn't thought this far ahead. She secretly hoped Haruka would come over and help her out, but she didn't.

"What about after school on every day we have English class? Then we can go over material that's still fresh in our minds."

Ayako nodded. "Good idea!" She turned to Kaori. "Everyone is so nice here, I like this place better than my old school already."

Kaori smiled weakly. "I'm happy for you," she said. "See you tomorrow Lucy." She packed her things and walked out the door, Ayako in tow.

Lucy and Haruka were once again the only ones in the room, aside from the teacher at her desk. "See you on the flipside," Haruka said with a wave.

Momentarily everything ceased to exist, it was swallowed in darkness like Lucy had been when she'd told Sabishii-chan yes, then a pavement materialised with a quiet road beside it, surrounded by green. Lucy felt she was walking and tasted something sweet. When everything was fully realised, she became aware she had a piece of toast with jam in her mouth.

She was walking to school. She had never been here, but she knew exactly where she was and that she would see Hachigoya the moment she would turn the corner that was coming up. The air was salty with the scent of the sea and that same sea offered a nice breeze as the morning sun shone brightly in the sky.

Such a beautiful setting for a horrible story, she thought.

"Good morning!"

She turned around. It was Haruka. "That's nice, we're taking the same route."

"Do you think she did it on purpose," Lucy asked. Haruka shrugged.

"She obviously knows we're friends, but she seems to be okay with that. That's a good sign. Hey, where'd you get that?" She pointed at the toast.

"I woke up with it," Lucy said, and she took another bite.

Haruka blew up her cheeks. "Aw boo, she never gave me anything. Maybe if I wish for it really hard at the end of the day," she wondered.

"So what happens today?"

Haruka thought for a moment. "I think today nothing special happens. The early days kinda blend together in my mind because the problems didn't start right away. You'll notice Hasegawa being a bitch to Kaori but Ayako won't confront her over it."

"Someone should," Lucy said as she finished the toast. She decided she really liked raspberry jam and hoped this would be a common occurrence in the morning.

Haruka nodded. "I agree, but I don't really blame mum for staying quiet. She doesn't know why Hasegawa acts like that to Kaori, and she hasn't noticed yet that Kaori doesn't have any other friends. She doesn't want to jump to conclusions and burn bridges she hasn't crossed yet."

"Why does Kaori not have any friends," Lucy asked. "She seems friendly and helpful to me."

"You'll see," Haruka said. "She's very fond of showing off how much she suffered in life."

* * *

At lunch the four girls put their tables together. Once again Kaori was a little hesitant, but Lucy spied the hint of a smile on her face after they sat down to eat their lunches.

"Oh good, I didn't forget mine today!" She exclaimed triumphantly.

Ayako cocked a brow. "You forget your lunch a lot?"

"Sometimes, it depends," Lucy said. She glanced at Kaori but quickly looked away again when she noticed the dark shadow over Kaori's pale face.

"Did Kaori show you around yesterday," Haruka quickly asked.

"A little," Ayako said. "But I had to rush home so I haven't seen the sea yet."

"Maybe we could go see it together after class," Lucy proposed.

Ayaka nodded happily but Kaori looked a bit perturbed. "I mean, if you'd like to, sure," she said after a moment. Her face was normal again.

Suddenly, with an unnecessary amount of gesturing and noise, Hasegawa shoved a chair next to the table they were sitting at and sat down at the head of the table, between Kaori and Lucy.

"Hey Loushy, can I join your English club?" Hasegawa had a smile on her face and looked friendly enough, but Lucy was still on guard. She saw Kaori tense up.

"It's Lucy," she said without answering her question.

"Oh, sorry! I've never heard that name before, so I wasn't sure how to say it. Clearly I could use some English lessons," she laughed.

"How do you like school so far, Kurosawa?"

"It's nice, but some people should really work on their manners," Haruka said before Ayako could answer. Hasegawa narrowed her eyes at her.

Ayako tried to hide her face with her hair and said nothing.

"Anyway," Hasegawa began, "I think this English club is a great idea. I just have one bit of advice for you," she turned to Lucy and put on an expression as if she was looking at a drenched kitten. "I know you probably don't know this because you're new, so I'm telling you to help you. You have a murderer in your group. And I'm sure you don't want that."

A hushed "what" escaped Ayako's lips. Kaori said nothing. Haruka sighed harshly.

"Yes, thank you Hasegawa, you are so thoughtful. Now please go back to your own table, your friends must be wondering where you went."

"I'm just helping the new girls out, what's your problem," Hasegawa said with a smile.

"The same as everyone else's here," Haruka said. Lucy felt a sudden icy cold brush her right side and knew it came from Kaori. She was afraid to look at her, so she tried to stay focused on Haruka instead. It appeared she'd sensed the cold too, because she stopped talking and stared Hasegawa down instead.

After a few very awkward seconds Hasegawa got up. "Just thought you should know," she said to Ayako, and walked back to her table.

They spent the rest of lunch eating in silence.

* * *

Haruka urged Lucy to come with her, telling Kaori and Ayako that they had to get some paperwork done for the English club.

"What was that talk of someone being a murderer," Lucy asked when they were alone.

"Complete nonsense," Haruka said angrily. "Do you see now how awful Hasegawa is?"

"She reminds me of someone from home," Lucy said.

"Please deck them for me when you get back," Haruka said. "Anyway, I should tell you what Hasegawa means by that. I don't know if mum ever asked back then, she was probably too scared. Kaori's mother died while giving birth to her, and her dad ran off soon after. She was raised by her grandparents. Obviously she's not a murderer but people will make up anything if they need a reason to hate you."

"Why does Hasegawa want people to hate Kaori?"

"I'm not sure about this," Haruka said, "mum never asked her and Kaori's kind of vague about it herself. Hasegawa's from a rich family and her dad's kind of a shady guy. From what I gathered Kaori insulted her dad and Hasegawa's hated her ever since. I figure she was jealous of how popular Hasegawa was, but she didn't say that, of course."

"Maybe if we can do something about Hasegawa everything will turn out better," Lucy proposed. Haruka shook her head.

"It didn't start with Hasegawa, she just turned quiet shunning into full on bullying. Mum's talked about a girl she knew, of whom everyone said she was cursed because her mum died and her dad left her. People interpreted that as nobody wanting her. Cursed from birth. Mum said that if I ever heard a story like that at my school I should disregard it because it's nonsense and nobody deserves to be shunned. That must've been about Kaori, it matches up perfectly."

"So… What can we do?" Lucy asked.

Haruka looked at her, eyes full of determination. "We keep trying until we find something that sticks. We're trapped here, so it's not like we have much of a choice regardless."

* * *

Not much happened the rest of the day. Kaori dropped a pen during one class and nobody tried to retrieve it for her. It landed under a boy's table, but he pretended he didn't notice. Ayako made the effort to get it for her, and Kaori looked ready to burst into tears when she handed it back. Lucy simply couldn't understand why Ayako seemed so against asking what was wrong with Kaori.

After school the four of them stepped outside. "To the ocean," Haruka said.

"Y-yes, follow me," Kaori stammered as she took the lead. They went off the school grounds, crossed the road and walked for a bit until Lucy could hear the waves crashing into the sea.

"It's so nice to be close to the ocean," Ayako said. "I used to visit the beach all the time with my parents when I was little."

"I don't think I've ever seen the ocean," Lucy realised.

"You've never been," Ayako said, surprised. She talked to Ayako for a while about places they liked to visit as kids, so Lucy had to make a bunch of stuff up. Haruka was uncharacteristically quiet.

"Well, here we are," Kaori said as they stood on the beach sand that swallowed up half their shoes, her arms stretched wide. "The ocean!" The wind beat enthusiastically at their hair and coats.

"I love it," Ayako said. "Doesn't it just feel like all your worries are blowing away over the waves?"

Lucy agreed that there was something oddly liberating about being blown about by the wind like this while the ocean raged in front of them. Maybe it wasn't so much the sea blowing away their worries, rather than drowning them out with noise and turmoil.

Kaori dropped her arms and closed her eyes, her face turned slightly up, as if trying to listen to the wind.

"I've never left the school grounds before," Haruka said to Lucy. "I didn't know it was possible." She looked hopeful, and a little bit scared. Some of her usual scorn had left her.

Suddenly Kaori started screaming. Ayako jumped in shock, knocking into Lucy. They stared at her as she yelled, wordless screams that were blown back at her in different directions by the ocean wind. Kaori grinned, but when nobody said anything her smile started faltering.

Lucy waited for Ayako to say something, or maybe Haruka, so she wouldn't mess up Kaori's scenario, but neither of them said anything. They seemed to be astounded by what Kaori just did. Lucy wondered if she was the only one who understood why she had yelled at the ocean. She felt a shiver run down her spine and realised that nobody was going to do anything, so she took a step forward into the damp sand, took a deep breath and yelled her lungs out. She felt Kaori looking at her as she did, her eyes wide.

"I feel so much better now!" She said, her voice slightly hoarse. "Come on, try it!"

Haruka immediately stepped up, gave Lucy a knowing smile, and yelled too. Ayako hesitantly followed once she was in the minority of non-screamers. Her voice faltered rather quickly though and when she turned around she apparently saw something on the bridge, so she urged the others to stop too.

Lucy caught a glimpse of Hasegawa on the bridge before the day vanished and went into the next. Once again she awoke tasting toast and jam.

"Hey, I got one too!" Haruka appeared beside her and waved around a piece of toast of her own. She took a bite. "Apricot. That's mum's favourite."

"Do you think going to the beach helped her," Lucy asked as they walked.

"It helped enough that she gave me a piece of toast," Haruka replied. "I don't know if we can break her out of the cycle, but it seems we can influence it. When I was alone Kaori liked me but she still kept her distance. Now it looks like we're proper friends with her. That's a step in the right direction!"

"Does anything happen today," Lucy asked as they rounded the corner.

Haruka shook her head. "Don't think so. We've got some time to hang out together and be regular students, I guess."

* * *

The days seemed to fly by, and Lucy, Kaori, Haruka and Ayako became a pretty tight knit group.

Whereas Kaori became more outspoken and energetic, Ayako remained demure and rather quiet. At times Lucy felt this didn't make sense, as they were all very comfortable around each other now to the point that even the vengeful ghost that kept them all trapped was happily playing along, but she understood that Ayako was playing a role she couldn't break out of.

There were times Lucy could see in Haruka's eyes that this hurt her, but there was nothing she could do about it. Every day she wondered when it would be a good time to reveal her intentions to the group and take out the Cure Gem, but she worried what such a serious deviation from Kaori's play would do to the world around her.

Despite the amount of time they had spent together, she felt that she didn't really know Kaori. She appeared bright and happy now, and it was easy to forget that the place they were in was Kaori's invention where everyone was doomed to watch her downfall over and over. She had to remind herself that she was talking to a ghost, not a regular teenage girl, and that everyone around her was trapped or made up.

One day, after lunch, Hasegawa approach their table again.

"Hey Ayako, I was wondering if you wanted to join me and some friends after school to do some shopping. I think your personal style is really cute so I'd like your advice!"

Ayako turned red. "Sure," she stammered.

Lucy noticed Kaori had frozen in place once again. Why? She had friends beside Ayako now, so even if Ayako befriended Hasegawa she wouldn't be alone, why was she still so afraid?

"Here we go," Haruka whispered.

"Cool," Hasegawa said. "You could join us next lunch, if you like. Then you don't have to hang out with a murderer anymore."

Kaori mumbled something; Lucy could only make out "not" and "murderer".

Suddenly Ayako pushed her chair back and stood up, and she glared at Hasegawa.

"Kaori is not a murderer! Her mum died when she was born, that's completely different. She's really nice, I don't understand why you're so mean to her!"

When she noticed the room had gone quiet to stare at her she quickly sat down again.

Hasegawa did not look impressed. "Sure," she said. She moved to go sit with her friends again, but turned around one last time. "You don't know what you're talking about. She's cursed."

Ayako pretended not to hear.

"Thank you," Kaori said. She had attempted to hide the fact that she'd been crying by trying to do so in silence without so much as a whimper, so her entire face was wet with tears and snot. Haruka handed her a handkerchief.

"It doesn't have to be this way," she said as she handed it over. Kaori didn't reply as she wiped her face.

"What's her problem," Ayako said, her face still red. Lucy thought she could feel Ayako's heart pounding through the table. "She seems like such a nice person when talking to anyone else, but she's so mean to you. I don't understand."

"Hasegawa is _not_ nice," Kaori spat, with a startling amount of force. It had the same energy as the teacher shouting at Haruka to be quiet on the first day.

* * *

The day ended with no further events, and Haruka was once again excited to find she got to have toast in the morning.

"What's yours?"

"Raspberry."  
"Do you want to swap?"

"Well, I already took a bite out of mine…"

"Aw. Tomorrow then?"

"I always wake up with it already in my mouth, so I guess, if you don't mind it having a bite taken out of it…"

"Ew. Never mind then."

Lucy chuckled.

To her surprise Ayako had gone with Hasegawa and her friends after school. She walked into the classroom with her, said goodbye and went to her seat to greet Kaori.

"I didn't think you would go," Kaori admitted.

"It is a bit surprising, isn't it," Ayako said placidly. Her face looked apologetic but she didn't express regret. "I won't let her say anything bad about you, I promise," she continued. "When she says bad things, I stop her. But I'd like to have more friends, so… I didn't want to reject them."

Lucy didn't think that was a particularly good excuse for hanging out with Kaori's bully, and Kaori seemed to feel the same; she didn't say anything but something in her face gave away that she felt betrayed.

Lucy and Haruka tried to cheer Kaori up for the rest of the day, but nothing seemed to work. She'd laugh, or smile, or thank them for being so nice, but she instantly reverted back into her somber mood right after. Ayako was equally sulky. She did apologise to Kaori eventually but quietly followed it up by saying "I don't think I should feel sorry about making more friends."

"I think we're becoming set pieces," Haruka said during a quiet lesson. "If we're friends with Kaori now it interferes with her play so she's acting like we're not there."

Lucy wondered if now would be a good time for the Cure Gem; the play was about to start the first act of its horrible finale and perhaps it would be better to reveal it to Kaori before that.

Haruka thought for a moment. "Let's stop playing it safe. I tried that for two weeks and it doesn't work."

Lucy wanted to ask Haruka what her plan was, but she already leaned over to tap Kaori on the shoulder.

"Let's go to the beach," Haruka said, beaming at her. "Get our minds off of things."

* * *

To Lucy's surprise, it worked. Less surprising was Ayako denying the invitation to come along. "I have too much homework," she said.

"No you don't," Haruka said. "I know you always do your homework right after school, you don't have any except for today's."

Ayako turned scarlet. "There's just… Stuff I have to do! I can't come along." She turned around and began to walk off at a brisk pace. Kaori tried to follow her.

Kaori and Ayako acted like Lucy and Haruka had ceased to exist.

"Am I not good enough anymore," Kaori said, far too loud in the busy hallway.

Ayako stopped. She balled her fists for a second and her shoulders tensed, but they relaxed again by the time she turned around.

"That's not it," Ayako said. She was still blushing. Her hand went to her cheek again, something she hadn't done for a while now.

"What is it, then? I thought we were friends, but now you don't want to hang out with me." Kaori's voice was quavering. This was the first time Ayako had rejected an invitation from Kaori, wasn't she overreacting a little?

"I don't want to go to the beach," she said.

"We could go somewhere else," Haruka proposed. She was ignored by both.

"Why not?"

"Could you lower your voice, you're shouting for no reason," Ayako said, her eyes glued to the floor. She sounded embarrassed but Lucy detected a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"Why not," Kaori said, quieter now.

"It's embarrassing. Someone might see us."

"I didn't think you cared about that," Kaori said. She wiped her eyes, though no tears had actually come from them. Her voice was steadying a little too.

"Well I do," Ayako said. "I'm sorry. Please don't think I hate you, because I don't. I still want to be your friend."

Kaori breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay, I understand. I'll go with Lucy and Haruka, then."

Ayako continued walking away. Kaori seemed to feel a little better.

* * *

They stood together, staring at the ocean, which was now quiet and flat. They didn't yell at it, instead they stood a small distance from each other, their shoes and socks cast aside with their feet half sunken in the sand.

"Maybe we should go for a swim," Lucy said. "I know its a bit cold but every time I look at these waves I just wanna dive in."

Kaori next to her tensed up.

"Good idea," Haruka said. "It'd be more fun than swimming at school because we can do whatever we like."

"I don't…" Kaori trailed off. She was fumbling with a hangnail on her index finger while staring at the water.

"What's wrong," Lucy asked.

"Please promise me you won't tell anyone," Kaori said in a small voice that would've been inaudible in the usual turmoil of the wind and waves. "I don't know how to swim. I nearly drowned when I was little and my grandparents have kept me from the water since, so… Now I can't swim."

Now she mentioned it Lucy realised Kaori had been absent for every swimming lesson they'd had. "Well, you could still learn it now, right," she said. Kaori shook her head.

"I don't want anyone to find out I can't swim. We live right by the ocean and part of my name means ocean, it would just give them ammo to make fun of me."

"We could teach you? We could go somewhere private and nobody would be able to judge you then," Haruka said. Once again Kaori shook her head.

"It's too late now."

Haruka sighed and said: "I suppose it is." They continued looking at the water pensively.

"Do you think I'm weird," Kaori suddenly said.

"No," Lucy said, honestly.

"Why do you ask," Haruka followed.

"Because…" Kaori paused a moment. "Because I only have one friend. Before Ayako I didn't have any for a really long time, and even when I did they would leave."

"We're your friends," Lucy said.

Kaori nodded. "Hasegawa tells them things and then they don't like me anymore. I'm a murderer and I'm cursed." She fell into Haruka without warning, who had to put in some effort into catching her. "I don't want to lose Ayako, too," she sobbed.

"I know," Haruka said. She petted Kaori's hair. "I know you don't. I wish you'd let us help you, Kaori."

"You can't," Kaori said hoarsely. She looked up, and Haruka looked horror struck.

Then the day faded into the next.

* * *

"I'm not hungry," Haruka said as she joined Lucy on the path to school. She held her piece of toast out in front of her as if it was a crawling insect.

"Hey, you've got raspberry jam this time," Lucy noted. She'd once again awoken with the toast in her mouth. She decided she liked raspberry better than apricot.

"I'm surprised it's not covered in cockroaches after yesterday." Haruka shivered.

"What did you see? You looked really freaked out."

"Her face." Haruka stopped. "It was…" She frowned as she searched for the right words, but then shook her head. "She looked like she had- You don't want to know."

The next few days went by as normal, with Ayako hanging out with them and Kaori becoming more cheerful again. Ayako would still talk to Hasegawa and her friends and eventually added a charm to her bag that was given to her by Hasegawa to match hers and her friends; Lucy could tell Kaori was bothered by this. Eventually Ayako stopped having lunch with them and switched over to sitting with Hasegawa instead. She'd tell Kaori it was only for a little bit to discuss some things with her new friends, but it ended up taking over the entirety of lunch after a while.

One day, as Lucy was leaving a bathroom stall, she heard Ayako come in with Hasegawa. She quickly closed the door again and listened.

"That charm goes so well with your bag," Hasegawa said.

"I agree. Thank you for giving it to me," Ayako answered.

"Of course! We're friends, right?"

"I guess we are," Ayako said shyly. Hasegawa tutted.

"You're far too shy, you know that. There's no need for that at all."

"S-sorry… I've always been like this."

"Oh, I know." Lucy heard the rustle of a bag and something being taken out of it, followed by the sound of something plastic snapping open.

"We can't wear makeup in school," Ayako said.

"Oh shush, this is an exception. It'll make you feel better which is totally a good reason to wear makeup, school rules be damned."

They went quiet for a moment.

"There. What do you think?" The plastic thing snapped shut with a click. "I think I did a pretty good job, it's practically gone."

"Thank you, Kazumi," Ayako said. "I don't know why I never thought of doing that myself."

"You just needed a push in the right direction that no one had the decency to give you yet," Hasegawa said cheerfully.

"Are you going to badmouth Kaori again? Because I asked you not to do that," Ayako said sharply. Lucy felt proud of her. She heard Hasegawa sigh.

"I'm just trying to help you."  
"She's not a murderer! That's ridiculous. I can't believe you'd say that about someone," Ayako snapped back.

"Yes, okay, that was stupid, I get it. She's technically not a murderer."

"Tech-" Hasegawa cut her off.

"But have you thought of why Kaori is so clingy with you?"

"I'm her only friend, she's-"

"You don't think it's annoying?"

"Well, yes, a little, but-"

"Have you considered she's trying to keep you close to make herself look better?"

Ayako didn't have a response this time. "What?"

"She's the most hated girl in school, no friends whatsoever, she's poor little Kuze Kaori-chan. Then in walks a new girl: Shy, keeps to herself, and… Sorry Ayako, I don't mean to hurt your feelings but you've got that mark on your face. Don't put your hand on it now! You might smudge the concealer."

"I thought you said I was still pretty even with the mark," Ayako said bitterly.

"Yes, you are! I don't care about the mark on your face, I like you for who you are, that's why I tried to befriend you all the time. But I bet Kaori does care."

"What do you mean?"

"Now this isn't my opinion, this is just what Kaori thinks of you, okay? So don't get mad. Kaori probably thinks if she befriends you, with that huge uneven mark on your face, people will stop being mean to her and they'll be mean to you instead. She's so attention-starved, she'll be okay being friends with an outcast like you, and all the hate will be directed at you instead of her. She'll defend you if anyone says something I'm sure, but that'll just hammer home how dependant you are on her. That's why she gets so upset when you hang out with other people."

"That's not true," Ayako said, but some of her resolve was gone.

"Maybe not. But I bet when you walk into class now, with that mark covered up, she's gonna complain. If you look pretty like you do now, she's gonna feel attacked. She wants you to look different so she has someone to hide behind."

Lucy heard one of them turn and walk away in a hurry.

"Ayako, wait!" Hasegawa called after her. More quick footsteps followed.

After making sure they were gone, Lucy left the stall and ran back to the classroom.

* * *

In class she saw Ayako was hovering her hand over her cheek as Kaori sat backwards in her chair to talk to her. If anything it called more attention to her face, and as such it didn't take long for Kaori to ask about it.

"I put concealer on it, don't you think it looks nicer?"

Kaori's expression was tough to read. "You can barely see it anymore," she said neutrally.

"Yes, that makes me happy," Ayako said, as if trying to steer Kaori towards the appropriate reaction.

"I think you're cute regardless of that mark," Kaori said, which was clearly not what Ayako wanted to hear, and her eyes fell.

"People say that but I feel better if it's hidden," Ayako retorted. Her response was snappy, too guarded. Lucy tried to interject but Haruka stopped her.

"There's no point. The play is almost over."

"But why? I think you should wear it with pride," Kaori tried.

"There's nothing to be proud of! It's an ugly stain and if I want it gone, I want it gone! Why don't you get that?"

"Yeah Kuze, why don't you leave her alone." One of Hasegawa's friends forced herself into the conversation.

"Shut up! Both of you, just shut up!" Ayako stormed out of the room, past the teacher. Hasegawa got up and followed her out. Kaori remained in her seat, her face turned away from Lucy and Haruka. She turned to the girl who had interrupted her conversation with Ayako. Lucy couldn't see her face, but heard her question perfectly.

"Why do you hate me so much?"

"Where are you going," Haruka asked when Lucy got up too.

"I want to hear Ayako and Hasegawa's conversation," Lucy replied. Haruka shook her head.

"I already did that, no need. Ayako's upset about Kaori's reaction but also about Hasegawa and her posse trying to choose her friends for her. Hasegawa says some more nonsense to try and convince her that Kaori's just trying to use her and Ayako doesn't want to believe it. Then…" Haruka sighed. "Then we get to the part that's the reason we're all here. Hasegawa says that if Kaori truly supported Ayako, she'd attend swimming class, since Ayako can't cover up her face in the pool. So they'll come back in a moment and ask Kaori to come to class tomorrow. You already saw what happens when she does." Haruka's face remained stern throughout her explanation, but her face had gone a little pale.

"We have to stop that," Lucy said.

Haruka nodded. "Do you have any ideas?"

Lucy reached for the gem in her pocket. "I do, actually."

At that moment Ayako and Hasegawa walked back into the class and walked straight towards Kaori.

"Sorry," Kaori began. "I didn't mean to insult you with what I said."

Ayako didn't make eye contact. "I know. Will you come to swimming class tomorrow?"

Kaori didn't reply. Hasegawa smirked. Lucy wanted to slap her.

"I… I don't know, I always help my grandmother on those mornings, I can't make it to swimming class in time," Kaori stammered.

"What if I said I'd really like you to be there," Ayako said. "To support me." She rubbed her cheek.

"I don't know…"  
"I told you." Hasegawa rolled her eyes.

Lucy sprang up. "Let's all go together!" They all gaped at her.

"Well, not you," she said to Hasegawa. "You can go with your own friends. But the four of us could meet up outside the school and go to swimming together, right? And maybe we can help your grandmother out later, Kaori."

"I would like that," Ayako said.

Once again, Kaori hesitated. "I'm sorry, I really can't. I can't let my grandm-"  
"Oh stop talking about your nan, you made that up. You clearly don't care enough about Ayako to not skip gym for once," Hasegawa said.

"That's not true," Kaori said in a high pitched tone.

"If it's not, then why won't you come with me," Ayako said, sounding more hurt than angry.

"I'm sorry Ayako, I really am. But I can't, I just can't." She turned to Lucy and apologised to her. Lucy felt it had a deeper meaning than just Kaori's play, but she wasn't sure.

"Fine. I see how it is. If you won't support me, don't expect me to defend you next time someone says something mean to you. I thought you were my friend but I guess I was wrong."

The rest of the lesson was extremely awkward, with Ayako writing her notes down with great anger, Kaori blankly staring at her table and Hasegawa and her friends whipping their head around every few minutes to look at them in smug superiority.

"You better hurry with your plan," Haruka said in normal volume. People turned around to look at her. "Because the day is about to end, and tomorrow it's over."

Right as she finished her sentence the day faded out into the next one. Lucy had not anticipated for this day to end right after class; they were supposed to have their English lesson after school hours - but with Kaori and Ayako's falling out, of course that wouldn't happen. Why hadn't she realised that? - and now she was back on the street, yet again tasting a mouthful of toast. Today it was two pieces - why? - but she had no time to think about it. She had no idea what time of day it was, if swimming lessons had already started like when she first woke up in Hachigoya, or if it was before school. She started running. She wished she was faster. Then she realised there was a way she could be faster.

" _Mirabilis Cerebrum Kaibutsu!"_

Cortex made it to the corner in two giant leaps. When she turned, she saw Haruka running in front of her. She let out a surprised yell when Cortex scooped her up and continued running.

"What the hell?!"

"It's me."

Haruka frowned. "Lucy? What happened to your cloth- Why are you green?!"

"It's a long story that we don't have time for right now. Let's say it's dream magic," Cortex said. She then handed the gem she had been holding in one hand to Haruka. "Please keep this safe for me for a bit."

It shone brilliantly in Haruka's hands.

"Is this what you wanted to give to Kaori," Haruka asked as she studied the gem.

Cortex nodded. "It started glowing when I first passed the school, I just know it's meant for her. Though…" She looked down at Haruka while jumping over several cars to make it to the school faster. "It's shining very brightly now you're holding it. I think you might be Precure material, too."

Haruka's eyes widened. "Precure?"  
"Yes, a legendary hero, like me," Cortex said.

Haruka smiled and sighed. "That'd be really cool but I think you should give it to Kaori. She needs the light in her heart freed. I'll be fine going back home with mum and being regular Haruka."

"I'll come visit you," Cortex said, bounding around the school building to get to the pool faster. "I don't know how yet, but I will. Now tuck in your head!"

After Haruka did so Cortex twisted her upper body and sprang elbow-first into the window of the pool, shattering the glass as they burst through. She put Haruka down and tried to find Kaori in the mess of students in the pool, who were now all looking at her. She saw Ayako sitting in an inflatable tube in the corner nearest to her, Hasegawa and her friends surrounding her.

"We're too late," Haruka said, "she's already jumped in."

"Kaori!" Lucy shouted, much the same way Haruka had on her first day in Hachigoya.

Haruka swore and ran past Ayako and knelt down next to the water, where Cortex now noticed something dark right below the surface.

"Lucy, help me!" She stuck her arms in the water and tried to pull what Cortex now deciphered was Kaori out of the water.

Before Cortex could do anything Kaori's hair wrapped around Haruka's arms and pulled her into the pool. Ayako shrieked.

"No," Cortex said, momentarily at a loss for what to do. In a panic she conjured her wand, and incapable of thinking of anything else to wish for said: "Lux Stella Praesens! Kaori, stop pretending!"

In a moment everything changed. At first Cortex thought she had been too late and the day had turned into the next, but the pool and the people around her were still there; everything had just become a lot darker and dilapidated and covered in a green tinge. Haruka and Kaori had not surfaced.

"Haruka!" Cortex yelled. She kneeled at the side of the pool but hesitated just before reaching in. What if Kaori pulled her in too? She tried to think of another incantation, when one by one her classmates were pulled under. None of them reacted to it, and they disappeared so quickly Cortex didn't have time to do anything.

Then something started rising from the middle of the pool. It stayed perfectly still as it slowly rose further up, the water streaming down it as if watery ropes sliding off what they had been holding captive.

Cortex edged away from the side of the pool. She knew the figure was Sabishii-chan, was Kaori, her friend, but the aura surrounding it was so distinctly hostile her instincts were screaming at her to run.

Her long, black hair stuck to her face in a way that made Kaori's head looked like a splotch of ink on her pale white shoulders. In the light her skin almost looked blue.

Cortex stood up and swallowed hard. "Kaori," she said in a voice that trembled a lot more than she would have liked. "I want to give you something."

When Kaori made a horrible choked noise she briefly lost her composure, but decided to keep going because Kaori hadn't at least directly tried to kill her yet, so she saw that as positive.

"I want to give you something," she repeated, and she held out her hand.

The green Cure Gem was in her palm, despite Haruka going down with it just a few moments before. They were linked to Cortex, nobody could take them away, somewhere deep inside she knew this.

"I've seen you as you really are, and this gem is proof that you're a good person!"

When she pointed it at Kaori, it glowed as brightly as it had in Haruka's hands.

Kaori's posture changed slightly and her hair floated off her face, the ribbon of her shirt gently billowing on the non-existent waves. Her eyes were no longer hidden by her hair and Cortex instantly wished they had been as she looked so hateful it was hard to maintain eye contact. But Cortex pushed through.

"Please take it, it's yours." She held up her palm.

"Why did you ruin my play," Kaori said in a low, strained voice that contained very little of the happy melody Kaori's voice normally was. Cortex realised the choking noises from before had been an earlier attempt at this same sentence.

"Because I want to help you." When she blinked she felt the floor disappear from under her and Kaori's face was right up next to hers. The smell of chlorine made her eyes water.

"Nobody can help me anymore," Kaori said. Cortex arm holding the gem was pressed between them.

"That's not true," Cortex tried. "I know that for you it's hard to believe but I know that's not true!"

Kaori coughed and inhaled in sharp, short breaths. Cortex' lungs felt tight. She tried to fill them with a deep breath but it seemed they were empty again the moment she stopped.

"Please let me help you," she said in a strained voice.

Kaori backed off again and let herself fall into the pool. When she didn't surface again Cortex once again pulled out her wand.

She pointed it at the pool but before she could start something jumped up at the edge of the pool. It was Haruka. She coughed and spluttered and clambered out of the water. Cortex quickly went over to help her out, but Haruka slapped her hand away.

"It's no use, Lucy," she said. "We failed her again."

"I don't-" but then Cortex got a good look at Haruka's eyes and noticed they were like Kaori's, not Haruka's own bright and brave eyes.

"My mother let her drown and lived the rest of her school days blissfully with her new popular friends. Honestly she should be left to rot here for all eternity."

"Kaori, I know that's you talking! Let go of Haruka," Cortex said.

"She came to Hachigoya a year ago, you know, to say sorry. But it was too late. More than ten years too late, when there was nobody left to condemn her for what she did in school," Haruka said bitterly.

"That's not true! Ayako didn't mean to hurt you."

"You take her side?!" Haruka's voice changed to Kaori's damaged one. "I thought we were friends, Lucy. I really thought we were friends!"

"We are," Cortex said. "But you're not letting yourself see beyond your hatred."

"I'm dead," Haruka said. Her hair changed from brown to black and grew longer and she gradually shrank until she was a head shorter. Kaori floated off the ground to be level with Cortex again. "Hate is all I have left."

Cortex shook her head. "No, if that was true, then this place wouldn't exist. And this gem wouldn't be telling me that it belongs to you."

Kaori started making horrible noises again instead of replying and Cortex caught onto what she was trying to do.

"You can't scare me! I know I'm right. You can throw whatever you want at me, but I'll still be here in the end and I'll still try to help you!"

She had not intended this as an invitation for Kaori to try, but that's how Kaori took it.

Suddenly she was underwater. When she looked up she saw the surface was far, far above her and she would never be able to reach it before running out of air. But she was a zombie, she didn't need to breathe anyway, so this didn't really bother her. Instead she looked around in search of Kaori, but she was nowhere to be seen.

The next moment she was in a casket. She tried to move, but couldn't. People were standing over her and crying. She recognised one of them as one of Hasegawa's friends, crying harder than anybody else. Lucy wondered if it was because she felt bad or was simply frightened by the sight of a body. Then she wondered if Marlucy got a funeral and concluded she probably did not.

Then everything became darkness and something was pressing down on her from all sides. She tried to open her eyes but immediately closed them again in discomfort as something fell into them. Not this again, she thought. She didn't think she'd have to climb out of the ground twice in one life. Before she could shimmy around to move the ground enough to move her arms the earth fell away and she was next to the pool again.

This time it was empty and appeared exactly the way it did in real life, except there were bodies strewn all around it. Kaori recognised Haruka, and the boy from lunch. Near Haruka was an adult woman with a small mark on one side of her face. She felt a wave of relief when she noticed all of them were breathing.

Kaori was floating above the pool and stared at her.

"I told you that you couldn't scare me. I know you're dead, but that doesn't have to be the end of it. This isn't the purpose of your existence. Look," Cortex gently pulled on her cheek. "I'm dead too, see? And unlike you I don't have my own soul, but I'm happy!"

Kaori continued staring.

"...Maybe you think I'm a witch, or something, but I'm not." Cortex detransformed. "I can be a normal girl, like you, see? I came here because I heard your story and I saw one of my gems glow and I knew that meant something. And I saw how you are, how you really are, who you were when you were alive and I want to help free that person inside of you. I know you don't believe it's there anymore but I can feel that it is!"

Kaori didn't move but when Lucy blinked the pool was full of water again. If Kaori was going to disappear underwater again she'd dive in after her.

"You don't have to be in this place. You can come with me, and I'll be with you and I'll introduce you to my friends and you won't be alone anymore! I can't do that if you won't let me help you." She clutched the gem in her hand. "You don't have to take the gem if you don't want to, but please listen to me."

Kaori appeared in front of her again and grabbed her shirt. Lucy gasped, which earned her a mouthful of water as Kaori pulled her under the surface of the pool.

* * *

They went deeper and deeper, far deeper than the depth of a normal pool and Lucy actually felt a little uneasy as the water grew darker and colder. Kaori looked down to the invisible bottom of wherever they were now. Lucy looked up towards the surface and saw the speck of light of the surface grow smaller and smaller.

Was Kaori trying to scare her again? No. This was something else. Down here it was cold and dark and endless. It was loneliness in a tangible form.

She wrapped her arms around Kaori, and she was so very small. Kaori dug her face into Lucy. Once again her instincts told her to let go and try to swim away, but she resisted. In a last ditch effort to scare Lucy and deter her from her plans Kaori suddenly snapped her head up, her eyes full of hate and resentment.

"You can leave this place." Lucy's words were bubbles. She wrenched her eyes shut, unable to look at Kaori's contorted features any longer, and tightened her grip. For a moment she feared what Kaori would do in retaliation, but then she felt she wasn't holding her any longer.

Her feet hit the ground. When she opened her eyes she noticed she was still underwater, though the water was a deep blue as opposed to the black they had been falling in before, and she could see her surroundings as little light filtered through from above.

Kaori was floating just a few meters away from her, a stark white little figure in the darkness. She had covered her face with her hands.

Lucy carefully approached her. Kaori lowered her hands a little. Her eyes were dark and shiny.

"I felt so betrayed, it's all I could remember. And it hurt so much," she hiccuped. "I didn't think it would ever end. And then it didn't. I didn't want to die, so I held onto the things I could still feel and I ended up like… Like this."

Lucy opened her hand again, and the gem reappeared, but Kaori shook her head.

"I can't take that. I don't deserve a better place than this. I've hurt so many people. You saw them, up there!" Kaori kicked her feet and put some distance between herself and Lucy.

"That wasn't you," Lucy said.

"But it was! It was all the hate and pain I felt, it was still me!"

"But there is a lot more to you than that. You're not just those feelings, something dark and evil made you that way, but you can break free. You just have to let go."

"I'm scared," Kaori said.

"That's okay," Lucy said. "I'll be with you the whole way, I promise."

Kaori hesitantly reached out to Lucy's hand. With trembling fingers she lightly touched the gem.

Instantly a green-tinged light enveloped her. When it vanished, the gem was gone. Kaori clutched her hands to her chest. "I feel different," she said in a high voice. "I can feel my heart, and I know words I didn't know before." She looked up at Lucy, her eyes wide.

"I told you! I told you it was destined for you," Lucy said and she danced towards Kaori with as much fervor as the water allowed. "Let's get out of here."

"I- I don't know-"  
"You do know, this is your world, right? So you tell it what to do!" Kaori hesitantly closed her eyes. She started floating up and quickly gestured for Lucy to grab her so she wouldn't be left behind.

As they went up Lucy noticed something shed off Kaori, like a dark blanket. They drifted further and further away from it, leaving it down in the dark depths of Kaori's old sanctuary.

* * *

With their feet back on the ground in Hachigoya's pool, Kaori let go of Lucy. The people strewn on the floor were still there.

"They must hate me," Kaori said, her eyes quickly filling with tears. "I've been so awful to them."

"Let's set it right, then," Lucy said. Kaori wiped her eyes and nodded.

She took a deep breath and concentrated. The lights in the pool came on. The water looked pure and everything was clean. The sun began shining in through the large windows. Lucy could hear excited chatter coming from the nearby school halls and saw the wind gently blowing through the trees outside.

The people on the ground slowly came to. She quickly went over to Haruka.

"Lucy?" Haruka wiped her eyes groggily as she moved to sit on her knees. "Goodness, you're still green."

"We did it," Lucy said. "Kaori's free now." Haruka's eyes went big.

"No way, how?" Kaori shyly waved at her, but didn't come over. She looked extremely guilty.

"I gave her that gem," Lucy said.

Haruka frowned. "Wow, was that seriously all it took? I didn't think you could break an onryo out of their state by flinging a magic rock at them."

Lucy smiled. "Sort of."

"Kaori?" A shrill voice full of disbelief rang out near them. It was the woman. Lucy recognised her voice. "Kaori, I'm so sorry," she said as she started towards Kaori who flinched back.

"I shouldn't have forced you to swim. And I shouldn't have let Hasegawa influence me."

"Mom," Haruka whispered. Ayako turned into her teenage self again.

"You must have been so scared, it's all I thought about after it happened, but I… I never apologized." As she talked Ayako turned into her teenage self again.

"Ayako," Kaori said in a voice obstructed by tears. "I was hoping you'd show up every day I was trapped here," she continued. "I wanted to talk to you so badly. But when you finally showed up after all those years and you apologised all I felt was anger. I thought… I thought you were just apologising to get rid of your feelings of guilt. So I trapped you…" She sharply breathed in. "For so long. I should be the one asking for for-"

"No!" Without another word Ayako hugged Kaori with such force it knocked the air out of her.

"Thank you," Haruka said to Lucy. "I was beginning to worry I'd end up like mom before you showed up. You saw the good in Kaori… No, you helped Kaori see the good in herself."

"I wouldn't have been anywhere if it wasn't for your help," Lucy said. "Thank you." They embraced.

"I don't know how to say this, but… I don't think we'll see each other again for a long time. I don't think we're from the same world," Lucy said after they let go.

Haruka nodded. "I got a feeling that was the case when you were running around with that shiny gem, myself. I'll miss you. Please take good care of Kaori."

"I will! And you take good care of your mum, she looks like she needs the support," Lucy said as she looked at Kaori and Ayako who had now turned into a heap of tears and arms.

Looking around it seemed Kaori thankfully had not trapped that many people, Lucy counted less than ten. Most of them looked very confused.

"Okay," Kaori said after a moment and she approached Lucy. "I'm ready to go. I will send everyone back, and then we can go together." She held out her hand to Lucy.

"You… You still want to take me with you, right?"

Lucy scoffed and lightly bumped her elbow into Kaori's arm. "Of course. I keep my word." She took Kaori's hand. Kaori nodded to herself and smiled lightly. "Of course."

Haruka and Ayako (now back to her real form) waved goodbye as everyone faded from the room.

Then the room itself faded and Lucy and Kaori reappeared in the forest near the mansion.

"Whoa, you're here!" A familiar voice said.

It was Luke and Verity, accompanied by Desdemona.

"What in the good name of The Lord was that," said Verity. Her eyes were the size of golfballs. "We just made it back to the school and I blink and it's gone, and now you're here!"

"It's a very long story," Lucy said.

Luke shrieked and hid behind Verity. "Is that…?" he clutched his camera tightly.

"Um, hello," Kaori said. "My name is Kaori. I'm a ghost, I guess," she said as she inspected her hands. She looked a little bit worried about that and turned to Lucy. "But wait, Lucy is a zombie, so I'm okay with not being normal too."

"You won't stand out here, don't worry," Desdemona said. "It's nice to meet you Kaori." She smiled at Kaori but cocked a quizzical brow at Lucy.

"Are you…" Luke tried again. Verity pushed him out from behind her.

"Sabishii-chan? Yes, sort of. Well, no, that was me, but now I'm Kaori. I'm just Kaori." Something in Kaori's eyes showed that she was very happy about this.


	7. The Claw that Rocks the Cradle

During the walk home Lucy, Kaori and Luke talked to each other excitedly. Nova had firmly planted herself on Lucy's shoulder the moment she had reappeared and refused to let go. Luke had gotten over his fear of Kaori rather quick, which Desdemona figured wasn't that odd for a boy who lived in a town surrounded by mysterious creatures and where strange happenstances were the norm.

Verity trailed behind a little, and Desdemona kept her company in silence. She noticed something was a little off about her. While she had only known Verity for the time she had been working in the school, she could tell her current quiet and solemn demeanor wasn't normal for her.

"I'm glad you came to get me," she said. Verity jumped a little as if she was ripped from somewhere far away.

"Y-yes, of course."

"It's good to have someone to look out for Lucy. I get the feeling she tends to attract trouble."

Desdemona gave Verity a friendly smile but only got a frightened short look in return. The girl quickly nodded. The necklace she wore shone brightly in the moonlight for a moment.

Desdemona felt her heart momentarily jump when she saw the sigil.

"Belarius, goodness."

Haphazardly Verity closed her fist around her necklace, as if hiding it now would make Desdemona forget she'd seen it at all.

"I didn't think he'd ever actually be able to do it, to be honest. It was such a bizarre wish, no offense."

Verity looked up at Desdemona. She seemed even more fearful than before and the eye contact she tried to maintain appeared to be nothing more than a sign of politeness.

"I remember it said on your file your guardians were your grandparents. I wonder if I made him shy about it… How is he as a father? I hope he doesn't spoil you too much," Desdemona chuckled.

Verity cast her eyes down. "I've never met him."

"What? But…"

"Hey Lucy, did Luke tell you about the photo he took in the school?" Verity sped up and joined the other kids, leaving a befuddled Desdemona behind her.

"Belarius would never abandon his child," she said to herself as she shook her head. "Something is wrong. Something is very wrong."

* * *

"We're going to have to think about getting a bigger apartment," Desdemona said when they made it home.

"Don't worry about me, I don't take up a lot of space," Kaori said with a smile. To prove her point she disappeared into the bookcase in the living room. "Hm, this place could do with some more decorating though," she said, poking her head out.

"You think so?" Lucy looked around the small living room. "I don't really know what I'd change...Oh wait, I thought of something!"

 _Stella Mirabilis Kaibutsu!_

Cortex conjured up her wand and was about to utter a spell when Desdemona interrupted her.

"Are you sure you want to use your magic for that? Didn't you say it was limited?"

Cortex shot her a defiant look, but didn't continue her incantation. She let out an annoyed sigh and de-transformed.

"I guess!" she said, throwing her hands up in the air. "I'm getting bored you know, I can't use my magic for anything fun." She crossed her arms and huffed.

"Is that… What a Pretty Cure is?"

Kaori had stepped out of the bookcase and stared at Lucy in amazement.

Lucy nodded with a grin. "Yes, but I'm just supposed to transform to fight bad guys!"  
"Oh, is that why you transformed in my school when you saw me?"

"N-no, I didn't mean…"

Kaori smiled slightly. "It's okay, I was pretty awful then. But now I'm a lot better. I'm excited to do magic!"

"It's also for helping people," said a blushing Lucy.

"Please use it for better things than home decorating," Desdemona said as she sat down on the sofa in the corner.

"So is it just Lucy who can become a Cure now?" Kaori sat down across from her.

Desdemona nodded. "Well, I presume you can do it too," she said. "I imagine that's why Lucy was so insistent on finding you." She looked at Lucy, who continued to blush as she sat down next to Kaori.

Kaori nodded. "I know what to say to do it, I think. When Lucy said those words just now I noticed they were very similar to the words I know. But I'm kind of nervous about trying."

"I'd love to see," Lucy said.

Kaori took a deep breath, mumbled a bit and then shook her head. "I can't, I feel too nervous, sorry."

"That's alright, we're not pressed for time, not yet. At least you know what to say," Desdemona said.

"What do you mean?"

Desdemona took her gem out of her pocket. As usual it was shining brightly. "I've got my own but for some reason it doesn't seem to want me," she said.

"I think the problem is that you don't want it," Lucy pouted. "She's all like 'it's not gonna work, stop pushing me, bluh bluh,'" she helpfully explained to Kaori. "Obviously it's not gonna work with that attitude." She narrowed her eyes at Desdemona.

"You're free to find someone more willing," Desdemona replied. "I've told you this many times."

"No!"

Nova sighed and rolled her eyes as she was hanging over the side of the sofa.

"It's yours. I'll believe in it for you for as long as you won't believe in it yourself."

Desdemona watched Lucy rant for a moment without retorting. She patiently waited for Lucy to finish her tantrum as she sat on the old sofa, her back perfectly straight.

"So there," Lucy finished.

"You know," Desdemona began. "Normally I find your childishness quite endearing but at this particular moment I find it to be very out of place. _Very_ out of place," she reiterated, more slowly.

Lucy raised her brows. Kaori looked very uncomfortable and began slowly sinking into the sofa, her arms in a guarded position in front of her.

"I'm a demon, Lucy. The definition is in Marlucy's book, in case you haven't read it. It seems you do not understand what this means."

"I know you're a demon," Lucy said carefully. "Why does that matter?"

"Demons are not good people."

Nova ducked behind the sofa and hid.

"It's in my blood. I was born to deceive people, to lead them off the straight path. I have done so more times than you can fathom. I cannot be a defender of anything good. It simply won't be allowed."

"Who won't allow it?" Lucy jumped up from the sofa.

Desdemona frowned, Lucy's incomprehension was starting to get on her nerves. "The powers that be," she said simply.

"Who is that? Tell me their name, I'll go talk to them!"

Desdemona repositioned herself in an attempt to keep from losing composure. She couldn't be serious. "You can't truly be this…" She stopped herself. As frustrated as she was, she didn't want to hurt Lucy's feelings. "This ignorant," she said after a moment.

"You're not a bad person," Lucy said. "You've cared so much for me since you got here."

"You freed me from that book, it's the least I could do," Desdemona replied. "It was just common decency."

This didn't sit well with Lucy. Where before she'd had her fists balled at her sides and a determined expression on her face, her hands now went slack and her face fell.

"You don't mean that," she said quietly.

Desdemona didn't reply.

"You didn't mean that," Lucy repeated, and she stormed off to her bedroom.

Desdemona walked to the kitchen and made herself a coffee even though she didn't particularly want one. She wanted to busy herself with something after that awkward exchange.

"Are they always like that," she heard Kaori whisper to Nova from the living room. Desdemona assumed Nova shook her head, or at least hoped she would.

She heard the door to Lucy's bedroom open and close and when she saw Kaori float into the kitchen she deduced Nova had gone in to console Lucy. She wondered why Kaori had decided to come over to her when she had looked so very uncomfortable before.

She looked at the little ghost, coffee in hand, without any particular feeling. It was hard to imagine Kaori had ever scared anyone; aside from her short stature her face was very friendly with big round eyes and cheeks.

"You don't look evil," she said after a moment.

"I'm sorry, what?" Desdemona frowned. That came a little out of nowhere, didn't it? She had been about to take a sip but lowered the cup now, in case she needed to respond to whatever Kaori was going to follow her (rather random) statement up with.

"When I first got to the forest with Lucy and I saw you, I admit I got a little freaked out," Kaori went on. "Because of your horns. From what I've been told monsters are pretty common here, but they aren't where I'm from, at least not when I was alive. So that shocked me a little when I saw it."

"Did it now," Desdemona replied, grabbing the chance to take a sip. She remembered now she much preferred tea.

"But when you introduced yourself you smiled and you looked… Well, you looked kind, there isn't really another way to put it. The corners of your eyes crinkle a little and your lips curl a bit but not so much that it looks fake, I could tell it was genuine. That told me you're really a kind person."

Desdemona, not knowing what to say, took another sip from her coffee that was little more than a prop to keep her from having to respond. Who in the house even drank coffee? She made a mental note to check and throw it out after so she could never make this horrible mistake again.

"Sorry, was that a weird thing to say? I've never been very good with first impressions… People say I'm too invasive, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable." Kaori put more distance between herself and Desdemona.

"No, it wasn't. I just didn't expect it," Desdemona answered. "With Lucy around you don't have to worry about weirding her out, I don't think it's possible. As for me, I've been alive for too long to be surprised by anything I'm pretty certain."

"Okay. If that was okay to ask, then I'd like to ask something that I'm sure is actually pretty personal," Kaori said, her eyes fixed on Desdemona's. She raised a brow.

"Did you actually do something evil?"

"Oh." Desdemona took another sip and cursed herself internally. "I suppose that is pretty personal. Hm." She thought for a while. "That depends on what you classify as evil."

"What would you classify as evil?"

Desdemona quickly put the mug down before she could take another sip of hell juice out of awkwardness.

"You like asking the deep questions don't you," she said.

Kaori shrugged. "I guess I had a lot of time to think when I was an onryo. I think what I did was pretty evil."

"But you were an onryo, your true self wasn't in control," Desdemona replied.

"What I did was based on feelings deep within me," Kaori said. "So they were things I did, even if I would never do them now or before I died. So I think they're bad, and they are things I did, and yet…"

Something clicked for Desdemona.

"Oh, you think I can be a Cure, do you?"

Kaori nodded. "Something tells me it's right. I think I feel the same thing Lucy feels." She put her hand on her heart. "Maybe the gems do that. And it also tells me that you're not evil, even if you don't believe it."

"I'm a demon," Desdemona repeated. Kaori nodded.

"Nobody's perfect," she said with a shrug and a smile.

* * *

The next morning Desdemona woke up on the sofa. Kaori was sitting across from her with a book.

She had peeked into Lucy's bedroom the night before to apologize but she had been fast asleep, with Nova on the pillow next to her.

When Lucy walked into the living room, Desdemona got up to apologize, but Lucy stopped her. "It's okay, you were right. Not about the you being evil thing, but I'm too pushy. I'm eighteen or something, I should know better. Do you want some breakfast?"

Desdemona sat back down and looked at Nova who was hovering behind Lucy. The little fairy shrugged.

She supposed it was just as well. "Cornflakes and some tea would be lovely," she called to the kitchen.

She turned to Kaori. "How did you sleep?"

"Not very well, since I don't really have to sleep. So I went out and wandered the town a bit on my own. It was mostly empty but there was this group of pretty rough looking teens that looked a bit spooked when they saw me. I hope I didn't scare them too much."

"Kids," Desdemona said with a sigh.

[break]

After breakfast Desdemona set off for work. Lucy stayed home with Kaori; which Desdemona didn't like much, but she understood Kaori didn't want to return to school any time soon and Lucy didn't want to leave her on her own just yet.

On her walk over she kept going over ways to bring Belarius up to Verity again without upsetting her. She didn't like the idea of badgering the poor girl, being the daughter of a demon was frightening enough on its own, but she simply had to. If she didn't find out why Verity didn't know her father very bad things would happen. Maybe Verity was simply not aware.

When she entered the classroom she saw Verity was already there. She was talking to Magdalene, one of the few monster students in the school. Desdemona wasn't sure what kind of monster she was exactly, but the sharp teeth and overly large irises gave her away.

She noticed Verity was wearing gloves. Had she always been wearing those?

Verity did not look like the child of a demon, though that was not uncommon for demonic offspring. They generally did not inherit any physical traits from their non-human parent. Newborns were known to occasionally sport horns or claws but those generally disappeared as the baby grew older. But what other reason could Verity have to cover up her arms?

"Alright class," she said a minute after nine, "Mister Turan is ill today so I'll teach today's class. Please take out your books if you haven't already."

* * *

As her class was working diligently Desdemona checked over the parent-teacher conference forms on her desk. She supposed she'd be doing those without Ervin as well. He had sent her notes on each individual student and thankfully there were no major problem cases that needed to be discussed with any parent. Some kids could be doing better in one subject or another, but that wasn't anything out of the ordinary.

She scrolled down to find Verity on the list.

 _ **Verity Allbright**_ _  
Good grades, fits in well with class. Mrs. Taggart says she could do better in Geology, says Verity visibly doesn't care for it but shouldn't let her grade drop._

 _I've been meaning to ask about the gloves she always wears but not sure how to go about it. Don't want to make her self-conscious in front of peers or her grandparents. Might want to test the waters during conference before bringing it up (if at all). Might be a medical thing? Have not been informed if that is the case._

Under it Ervin had added a note for Desdemona specifically:

 _Raised by grandparents (mothers side), so they'll be coming to the conference. Friendly but pretty reserved. They're from the White Hill Community, I think that should tell you enough._

Desdemona frowned. That didn't tell her much at all. She knew White Hill Community was a gated community and that Verity was the only student enrolled from there which she didn't find particularly odd as she assumed most kids from a gated community would be homeschooled. _Why wasn't Verity homeschooled then_ , she wondered.

She was raised by her grandparents, which was another thing that stuck out. Belarius wanted a child, and for that there had to be a mother. Where was she, if she hadn't raised Verity? An awful thought appeared in Desdemona's mind: It wasn't entirely uncommon for a cult to manipulate someone into carrying a demon child for them, but Belarius would never allow such a thing.

Then again, demons didn't have much say in their summoning until they'd actively been brought to earth. Desdemona sighed. These weren't exactly things she could ask Verity about, considering how little she knew about her at the moment. Maybe she should wait until she met her grandparents to make a proper assessment of the kind of people they were, and why her parents were out of the picture. Especially Belarius.

* * *

To Desdemona's relief Verity was delayed that evening. She was first on the list and it would have been hard to ask everything she wanted to ask in the span of fifteen minutes. With her being late there was a chance Desdemona could move them to the end of the evening and stretch their meeting.

They showed up almost an hour later than planned, and had to wait for everyone else to be done for their turn. Desdemona was acutely aware most other classes had finished once the time arrived to talk to the Allbrights. The quiet murmur of waiting parents and children had died down and the halls were now eerily quiet when she opened the door to her classroom to greet Verity and her entourage.

"Thank you for waiting," she said as she let Verity's family in and showed them their seats.

"Terribly sorry it took so long, I had little time to prepare, seeing Mister Turan is ill so some conversations took a bit longer than I intended. I'm Desdemona, Verity's TA, nice to meet you." She stuck out her hand and Verity's grandfather confidently shook it. As did her grandmother. Desdemona got the sense they wanted to show her they did not fear her.

When they had all taken their seats she noticed they were wearing chains not unlike the one Verity was wearing, though she couldn't see if they had the same symbol on it.

She quickly went through Verity's prowess in school, which her grandparents seemed content with. When she noted the one complaint by Mrs. Taggart her grandfather made a dismissive sound as he patted Verity on the shoulder. Nothing out of the ordinary as of yet, Desdemona thought.

"Is there anything you'd like to bring to my attention," Desdemona finally asked. "I'll pass it on to Mister Turan of course."

"No," her grandfather replied promptly. "We're satisfied with Verity's prowess, and she comes home happy every day."  
Desdemona eyes quickly darted to Verity, whose face was like stone aside from a small polite smile. "We've got no questions. Thank you for your time, Miss… uh, Desdemona."

 _Maybe I should think of adopting a last name_ , Desdemona thought. That wasn't much of a pressing matter now however, as Mister Allbright just raised a red flag.

They should have questions. Every single family which had come by this evening had asked one or several of the same set of questions, the Allbrights were the only ones who seemed more interested in getting out as soon as they could as opposed to getting assurance the environment their child spent most of the week in was safe. She wondered if it was just because they were annoyed they had to wait so long, but she strongly felt that wasn't the case.

"You don't want to know about Pretty Cure? Or the monsters that live around town?" she raised her brows slightly but tried to make her voice sound more friendly than surprised or quiziccal.

"We're not too worried about that," Mrs. Allbright said in a surprisingly haughty voice. "White Hill is well protected. Nothing that doesn't belong there gets in."

Desdemona wondered if she should feel offended.

Verity had turned slightly pink. "I can't believe you said that," she mumbled.

"But it's true, sweetheart," her grandmother said, her voice now so sweet she almost sounded like a different person. "You know that."

"You coulda said it in a less rude way," Verity mumbled.

"It's alright," Desdemona sussed. "I understand. And you're sure you wouldn't like to know more about Pretty Cure either? It's something a lot of parents had questions about so I thought I should ask."

"It's just magic nonsense, ain't it," Verity's grandfather said. He shrugged. "It doesn't apply to our family."

"Oh, well I thought, since Verity is close with Lucy, she-"

"No, that's alright!" Verity said loudly. "Lucy's just a friend. We don't talk about that sorta stuff. Like my grandpa said it's not relevant to us." She picked at the seam of one of her gloves.

Her grandmother noticed Desdemona was looking at it. "It's a skin condition," she said. The haughty tone had made its way back into her voice. "She's self conscious about it."

Her grandfather made a move to get up. "Well Miss Desdemona if that is all, we would like to go home now, if you don't mind."

"Actually, I do mind," Desdemona said quickly. She knew that if she didn't say something now the Allbrights would rush out the door before she could even wish them a nice evening.

"There is something I must ask you about. I didn't want to bring it up out of nowhere but I have cause for concern, not just for Verity but potentially for everyone in Old Town. Possibly even further than Old Town."

He sat back down, the irritation on his face plain as day. None of the Allbrights were looking at her, like they were trying to hide away from Desdemona even though hadn't heard her question yet.

"I noticed earlier this week that Verity was wearing the sign of Belarius. I must ask you what your involvement with him is."

Verity looked very uncomfortable but didn't say anything, her grandmother looked like she had decided to never speak to Desdemona again, but her grandfather shifted a little as if he was readying himself to find the right words.

"Old acquaintance of yours," he finally asked.

"In a sense." Belarius had been what Desdemona would describe as a close friend, but demon-human etiquette meant she should not tell mortals about relationships between demons.

"Which one are you," he asked next. His wife looked shocked he'd ask such a thing. "I've never heard of a demon called Desdemona, that's gotta be a fake name."

"You would be right. Whatever books you've read about demonology, you wouldn't find me in it. Belarius and I conduct our business in very different ways. I don't promise riches to those who do my bidding in the world, and I don't ask for sacrifices in my honour. Though I always thought Belarius was rather light on that part, asking simply for a child to raise as his own." Her eyes rested on Verity. She cast her eyes down, as if she'd just been caught doing something bad.

She turned her attention back to Verity's grandparents.

"It's none of my business why you chose to worship Belarius or how you do it, and I won't judge you for it. But I have to warn you." She leaned forwards slightly. Both elder Allbrights looked defiant. They clearly did not appreciate the lecture.

"If he has rewarded you for your worship, you cannot break your pact with him. Verity told me she doesn't know her father. If this means you have kept her away from him for eighteen years everyone is in grave danger."

"Seventeen," Mister Allbright corrected, flustered he added "I don't appreciate being threatened like this." He got up and urged his wife and granddaughter to do the same, though the latter didn't look like she wanted to get up.

"I am not threatening you," Desdemona replied.

"You say we're in grave danger, that sounds like a threat to me!"

He led the rest of his family to the door, all the while growling about how ridiculous it was the school had hired a demon. As Verity was being pulled along by her grandmother, her glove slipped slightly off her hand. Desdemona saw the top of her arm was a very deep and unnatural shade of red. Verity threw a quick glance at Desdemona before being pulled out of the room that said more than any word she'd spoken that evening: Help me.

* * *

"You have to turn me into a cat."

Lucy stared at Desdemona with a smile that communicated she comprehended virtually nothing of Desdemona's request.

"Why do you want to be a cat," Kaori asked.

"I need to get into White Hill Community as soon as possible. There's no way I'm getting in as myself, but they wouldn't notice a cat."

"Being a cat sounds kinda fun," Lucy mused.

"It's not for fun, we're all in danger!"

"Danger? Is it Rosabell?" Lucy finally looked like she was tuned into the conversation. Desdemona shook her head. "It's Verity's family, I think they're a cult. They've been profiting off a demon without fulfilling his wishes for seventeen years. You don't want to anger a demon, especially not one you've been giving power for over a decade through worship."

Kaori gasped and threw a worried look at Lucy. This was all still very new to her and she wasn't sure what an appropriate response was (though she figured an angry demon meant nothing good).

"At this point he could obliterate the town, or claim it as his own. I'm not sure which is worse, honestly. Belarius has always been very kind but a demon is still a demon."

"You know him? Is he like you? Because if he's nice, we could-"

" _A demon is a demon_ ," Desdemona repeated.

"Okay okay, not the time, I get it," Lucy said. She got up and struck a dramatic pose. "One Catsdemona, coming up. _Stella_ _Mirabilis Kaibutsu!_ "

* * *

She silently made her way to White Hill Community as fast as her four little feet could carry her. Lucy had done a very convincing job at turning Desdemona into a black cat, but she had noticed she had an uncommon red sheen to her fur and her eyes were slightly too orange for a normal cat. Desdemona wasn't too worried however, as she was planning on staying in the shadows for much of that night.

As she made her way towards the gates of White Hill she realised just how isolated it was from the rest of town. She slipped through the gate and took a quick look around. The street was lines with identical white houses. At the end of the road was a small church building, equally white. She remembered from Ervan's notes that Verity lived on number 23, and wasn't surprised to find it was the slightly larger house next to the church. _Of course her grandparents are the leaders_ , she thought.

The white identical houses were larger than average, and the neighbourhood was clearly upper class, but Desdemona found it rather ugly and sterile. It was clear to her many didn't seem to know what to do with the riches they got from joining Belarius' cult so resorted to the most stereotypical uses of their wealth. Large houses, and large cars. She went up to number 23 swiftly and looked for a way in. She climbed a tree near an open window she spotted, but hesitated right before climbing in when she saw Verity sitting on the bed in the room.

It was a nice room, not sterile like the exterior of the house; an appropriately messy teenager's room with posters on the walls and cute furniture making up most of its interior.

Verity's arms were bare, and Desdemona instantly understood why she wore gloves in school when looking at them.

Her hands were completely black, up to her elbow where it became a dark shade of red and faded out to pink at her shoulder. Verity was furiously rubbing them with what looked like makeup, but to no avail. Desdemona saw she had tears in her eyes, likely out of frustration.

 _She's starting to look like Belarius_ , she realised. His arms were just like that, as were his legs.

I should go talk to her, Desdemona thought. She had made it into White Hill, it wouldn't matter if Verity found out she wasn't a normal cat. Maybe if she could establish contact with Belarius before everything came to a head, she could defuse the situation.

She jumped onto the windowsill, and greeted Verity with a meow.

Startled, she tried saying hello again. Another meow. She couldn't speak.

Verity looked up at her. "Oh, you're very cute," she said, and she got off the bed. "How did you get in here? Did you hear me yammering?" she held out her hand. Desdemona figured the best course of action was to let Verity pet her, so she moved her head down a little.

"I hope my arms don't frighten you. But then I guess a cat wouldn't care about that. Honestly I don't know how much longer I'll be-" Verity stopped herself. "Oh never mind."

Desdemona jumped into the room, onto Verity's bed. She tried to think of how she could possibly communicate with Verity now. Would Cortex' spell last all night?

Then the bedroom door opened, and a girl stepped in. It was Magdalene.

"I didn't know you had a cat," Magdalene said. Desdemona sensed unease in the girl; she kept close to the wall and kept her eyes fixed on the cat.

"I don't, she just came in through the window. She's very friendly." Verity sat down and petted Desdemona some more. She didn't purr, as she didn't know how.

"It looks weird," Magdalene said. She still had her back to the wall and looked at Desdemona as if she was a hairy spider.

"So do I," Verity said.

"I didn't mean to make you feel self conscious," Magdalene said flatly. "Besides, I'm here to help you with that, right?"

Verity sighed. "I really hope your plan works. I thought when Lucy did her spell I was free, but my arms turned black within a single day. I've almost just accepted this is my future." She gently smooshed Desdemona's face between her hands as a way to comfort herself. Desdemona thought it'd be best if Verity never found out she was ruffling her TA.

"It's deeper than what's going on with your skin, obviously wishing it away with a spell wasn't gonna fix it," Magdalene said. Her voice had a tinge of resentment in it. When Desdemona looked up at her she noticed she was still glaring at her.

"Weird cat," she mumbled again before turning her attention back on Verity.

"We have to drive out Belarius, and then you will be free. And your family can keep everything they got from him."

Verity shook her head. "I really don't care about the stuff. If that all vanishes when he's gone from me, that's fine. It's blood money anyway, if you really think about it."

"Won't your family be upset?"

Verity shrugged. "Yeah. I mean, probably. I used to think they loved me a lot, you know, I always thought I was spoiled cos I had way more stuff than other kids. But they were so vague when I asked them about why my mom had left us, and that starts eating at you as you get older. And then when my fingers first started turning black, and my grandpa had that freak out…"

Verity looked away from Magdalene and bit her lip. She shook her head. "I still dont wanna believe it but… I don't think they really love me. Like, they care, because without me they wouldn't have gotten what they wanted from that guy- my dad- Belarius, _whatever_ , but they don't love me for me. They love what I got them. I think that might be why my mom left. They say she was irresponsible and they adopted me when she ran off. But I bet she had enough of them treating her like she was just a means to get what they wanted. Ugh, sorry Maggy, all I've been doing is moaning and complain at you. You already know what's up, you don't need me to whine at you about it." Verity smiled at Magdalene, who returned it. A glint of a pair of fangs poked through her lips. She wasn't a vampire, Desdemona concluded, the fangs were too close together for that. Was Magdalene a demon, too? She'd never seen her before, but she might be wearing a disguise, just as she was herself.

"So how do we do this?" Verity got up. Desdemona stuck close by her.

"We need to go to the chapel. You've got the chalk and the book, right?"

Verity took a plastic bag with chunky sidewalk chalks off her desk.

"Hope it doesn't have to be white," she smiled apologetically. "The book is in the chapel, it's always there. They read from it every Sunday."

"Good." Magdalene smiled. "Let's go to the chapel then."

* * *

The chapel was attached to Verity's house. It was almost completely bare which was a stark contrast to the main house which was full of shows of wealth by Verity's grandparents. It had a small stage with a stand for religious books, and several rows of benches, but that was it. The only thing of note was a large round burn mark on the floor, in front of the stand. The floor around it looked more worn than in other parts of the chapel, as if many feet had trod on it over a long period of time.

Magdalene pointed at the mark. "Might as well do it over there. End it in the same place where it started." She looked at Verity as if searching for confirmation on that statement, but Verity just gave a curt nod. She looked very uneasy. She grabbed a piece of chalk and crouched next to the mark. Magdalene walked over to the book on the stand and started flipping pages. After finding the right page, she lifted up the book and flipped it so Verity could see. The page contained a large diagram of a summoning circle.

Verity squinted at it. "Do you think its a problem if its slightly off? I don't think I can draw all that one hundred percent perfect."

"That's fine," Magdalene said.

 _That really depends on how far off you're planning to go_ , Desdemona thought. She was sitting a little away from the two girls. She figured out Magdalene was trying to do a cleansing ritual, but at this late a stage she doubted it would work. It could work on weaker demons but since White Hill Community had been worshipping Belarius for over a decade he'd be too strong. At least it shouldn't do any harm, she thought. Nothing would happen. Then when she stopped being a cat she could try summoning Belarius of her own accord and talk to him, she planned. She walked a little closer to look at the circle Magdalene had Verity draw.

Her heart jumped.

Verity was drawing a summoning circle. It would do the opposite of what they expected. At best it would speed up Verity's transformation, at worst it would summon Belarius directly to their realm.

She meowed.

Verity looked up for a moment and smiled. "Have you come to look?"

Desdemona meowed again and paced back and forth, at a loss for what she could possibly do in this form.

Only one thing came to mind, and she already deemed it futile, but it was her only idea. She began walking through the circle, smudging the lines.

"No, no kitty, don't do that!" Verity lifted her up and put her to the side. Desdemona made a move to try again but stopped herself when she realised this may well get her kicked out of the chapel.

"I swear that cat is trying to sabotage us," Magdalene said. If she tried to sound jokey and lighthearted she failed miserably.

"She's just a kitty cat, maybe she was upset I wasn't giving her attention," Verity sussed. "The circle is fine, I'll just redraw the bits she messed up."

Salt, Desdemona thought. They need salt. If she couldn't stop them from summoning Belarius, she could at least get them to keep him contained in the circle. But how was she going to communicate that to them? She scratched her paw on the outer edge of the circle and looked at Verity. When Verity looked up at her, she did it again.

"I swear she's trying to tell us something," Verity said.

"Maybe she was sent by your dad to ruin our plan," Magdalene replied flatly.

Verity shook her head. "No, he doesn't have animal familiars I don't think. Okay, I think I'm done."

She got up and studied her work. "Do you think its a close enough match?"

Magdalene put the book back down again and started flipping pages again. "It looks perfect," she said without looking up from the book.

Verity sighed nervously. "Okay, I'm ready. Well, I'm not, but I don't think I'll ever be ready for this. So I just get in the circle, right?"

"Yes," Magdalene said, and she looked up to see if Verity had taken her place yet.

Desdemona meowed in protest and firmly planted two paws inside the circle.

"This is starting to creep me out," Verity said. "Why does she make such a ruckus?"

"It's a demonic pact, weird stuff is gonna happen," Magdalene replied, and without missing a beat she started reciting from the book.

When she started her words were strained and she was struggling with the alien language, but quickly she began speaking faster and her voice became unnatural.

Desdemona leapt from the circle and at Magdalene to stop her, but an invisible force swept her off the standard the second she jumped on it. She fell to the floor next to the circle, which had begun glowing. What on earth had hit her? It had felt like an arm, or a paw had swatted her away, but Magdalene's arms were firmly grasping the sides of the stand, unmoving.

Verity stood stock still with her eyes wrenched shut and her hands clenched into fists. The dark markings on her arms and legs began rapidly climbing up. Glowing lines began etching their way through the darkness. Desdemona pawed at Verity's legs in hopes she would snap out of it and leave the circle, but it was fruitless. Meanwhile Magdalene kept reciting the words. Desdemona could feel the atmosphere in the room shift, and she felt it went far beyond that. She looked up at the only window in the chapel and saw that the sky had turned green.

 _It's too late_ , she thought, right as Verity's feet left the ground.

Magdalene had finished the spell and now looked up at what she'd done. She started to laugh. It was a high and harsh cackle, full of resentment and bliss. It sounded nothing like the voice of a teenage girl.

Verity had gone limp as she floated on the air, a dark aura exuding off her back.

When her head snapped back and her eyes flew open, Desdemona lunged up at her. She felt her body grow larger as she was blasted away from the circle, and she wildly grabbed at Verity to try and save her from the impact of hitting the ground at such force. When she did, she hit her shoulder painfully on the ground.

At the moment of the blast Magdalene had stopped laughing. In fact, she was no longer standing behind the standard. Thousands of small spiders were scuttling their way out of the chapel, their silent steps accompanied by a resentful whisper that sounded eerily like Magdalene.

Desdemona quickly assessed her situation. She had returned to normal. She coughed to affirm she had her voice back. Her head and back hurt from hitting the floor. She let go of Verity, who had been mostly shielded from the impact, yet she was still huddled together. For a moment Desdemona thought she had passed out, but she saw the girl had her eyes open.

They were completely white.

Her face had turned the same colour as her limbs, though the edges of her cheeks and forehead were still pink.

Desdemona didn't need to look up to know what she would see in the circle. She sat up, an arm around Verity to shield her from her father.

* * *

Back at Lucy's apartment Kaori was staring out the window with scrunched together eyebrows.

"Lucy, is it normal for the sky to look like that?"

"Like what," said Lucy, who was studying Marlucy's book with Nova as Nova performed wild gestures to explain what some of the drawings meant.

"It's green."

"What?" Lucy got up and walked over, as Nova perched herself on her shoulder. When she looked out and up at the sky, she saw it was a very deep shade of green blotted with swirling green clouds. No stars were visible, and the sky seemed to turn gradually lighter just beyond a point they couldn't see.

"No, that's not normal," Lucy said. "This could be Rosabell's work."

"It looks like the eye of the storm is somewhere over there," Kaori said as she pointed to the light spot. It was hard to see because the horizon was blocked by another apartment building, but it looked like the light illuminated part of the town, and the black clouds were swirling towards it.

Suddenly Lucy started. "Desdemona is still out there! I have to go find her." She made for the door.

"Can I come," Kaori asked in a small voice.

"Yes, of course! I need you to come along!"

Despite the sky looking very ominous and their friend being in possible danger, Kaori followed Lucy out the door with a small smile on her face. She'd never been needed before.

* * *

Kaori spotted several people standing in their windows and looking out when they stepped out of their building. No one seemed so brave to step out into the streets however.

A vague and low rumbling could be heard every now and then, very similar to thunder but there was something to it that was decidedly unnatural to Kaori's ears. Being a ghost Kaori didn't fear death, honestly didn't fear much at all except solitude, but the atmosphere they found themselves in made her feel something she hadn't felt in a long, long time. It was as if a knot had formed in the middle of her chest, right above her heart. She felt very alert and excited. When she looked at Lucy she deciphered she felt much the same.

"It looks like it's coming from over there, come on," Lucy said as she strode into the street. Kaori hadn't known Lucy for very long so she didn't know if this behaviour was uncommon for her, but she'd never seen Lucy so serious before.

When they left their street they got a clearer view of the sky. They could now see the light was illuminating a hilltop. The small white houses on the hill resembled bright green crystals sticking up out of the ground; like an emerald geode that had been split open.

"White Hill Community," Lucy breathed. "Verity!"

She began to run.

* * *

When Lucy started to get out of breath (which took longer than Kaori had expected; she'd certainly never had that stamina when she was alive) she promptly transformed into Cure Cortex and resumed her sprint at twice the pace.

Kaori could move through obstacles and she didn't have to run, she could practically fly everywhere, but she wasn't _that f_ ast. She nervously mumbled the words she learned when Lucy gave her that green gem, but nothing happened. She felt a little disappointed in herself but decided now was not the time to mope about her own problems, and figured it'd be faster to fly through the hill as opposed to going up it, like Cortex was doing, and just float up from the ground when she made it to the top.

"Aah!"

"Sorry, I didn't know you'd be standing so close," Kaori said after giving Cortex a fright when emerging from the ground right next to her. They were standing in front of a large gate.

"That's okay, I'm just really tense," Cortex said. Then she kicked open the gate with such force one of the hinges ripped off its brick post.

"Are you sure it's alright for you to just run in," Kaori said. They were now standing within the bright green light. Ahead of them was a chapel, as angular and white as the surrounding houses. The black clouds were swirling down towards it, as if a giant snake was descending from the sky and trying to coil around it.

"I could check first," Kaori said. "I don't have anything to lose."

Cortex shook her head. "That's not true. You have a soul. I don't have one, so I'm not afraid to go in there." She confidently strode towards the chapel. Nova hid herself in her hair, as if it would guard her from whatever possibly soul-stealing evil entrenched itself inside the chapel.

"I'm still coming with you," Kaori said so quietly only she could hear it, and she silently followed after Cortex.

* * *

Black smoke snaked its way into the chapel through the small window and began to swirl around the ceiling.

Belarius stood motionless in the circle, a silhouette in the bright green light. He was over 8 feet tall and had a pair of jagged black horns on his head. Like Verity, his eyes were entirely white. The skin on his arms was a deep red, as was his face. Patterns with meanings unknown to anyone but his cult decorated his body and face, white as scars or burned brands. He took a step out of the circle and Desdemona shouted his name.

"Belarius!" He turned his head like a predator who just heard his prey break a twig in a nearby bush. He didn't appear to recognise Desdemona.

His eyes fell on what she was shielding from her, and he turned to them. He reached out with one giant muscular arm.

"You have my child," he said in a voice that would make any human heart skip a beat.

Desdemona on the other hand felt slightly perturbed. _You're my friend, how dare you use this tone with me_ , she thought.

"Belarius, it's me," she tried again. She tried to get Verity to stand and carefully pushed her behind her back. Before Desdemona could say anything else, the chapel doors opened. Slowly but surely people began shuffling in, all clad in pure white washed with acid green light. At the front were Verity's grandparents. Belarius' followers, Desdemona thought. They walked very slowly and deliberately and with uncanny synchronicity. Their eyes were empty; their faces blank. Possessed. What was Belarius planning on doing with them?

"Why did you bring them here?" she asked, but her friend ignored her in favour of addressing his disloyal followers. He pointed at Verity with one sharp black nail.

"You took my daughter. You broke the agreement," he boomed. "I will now take back all that I've given you."

Above them the roof began to creak and tear. One by one the tiles flew up into the green spiral, filling the dark chapel with its green light. _He's going to destroy White Hill_ , Desdemona thought with alarm. What would he do next?

"Belarius, this isn't you," she shouted at him, "you're drunk with power!"

"Kaori, why won't you move, come on?"

Surprised by the familiar voice that really shouldn't be in this place, Desdemona looked at Belarius' followers. She groaned when she saw Cortex at the edge of them, futilely putting her hands through Kaori's arm in an attempt to remove her from the rabble of followers. It occurred to Desdemona that Belarius had not just possessed his own followers, but anyone in the vicinity of the chapel. And body or no, Kaori still had a soul. That also explained why Cortex was fine.

"Cortex," she called. Cure Cortex turned.

"There you are! Wow, what's wrong with Verity?"

"Being a demon's daughter comes with some interesting afflictions," Desdemona said rather plainly under the circumstances. "Could you smack Belarius for me?"

Cortex gaped at her. "Like, actually hit him, or…"

"Sarcasm was an ignorant choice, I'm sorry. No, please try one of your spells. He's ignoring me in favour of his fatherly rage but maybe that'll get his attention."

Cortex shuffled a little awkwardly. "I tried that already when I was outside, but it did nothing. I think I'm not strong enough against his power."

"I see," Desdemona said. "I guess I don't have a choice."

She turned around to face Verity, whose face was still blank. Desdemona concentrated hard as she looked Verity in the eyes. Trying to break a demonic possession was tough, especially if you couldn't cite any religious verses without spontaneously combusting yourself. The grip Belarius held on his daughters psyche was tough, but Desdemona could sense it had weakened a little once he had ushered in his followers and began destroying the buildings around them; he simply couldn't keep them all in a deathgrip at the same time.

She felt like she was about to go blind from the headache induced by her counterattack when she finally broke through and freed Verity's mind. Verity promptly lost control of her legs, and Cortex quickly caught her. Desdemona herself crouched down and gripped her head.

"Oh no," Verity said as she took in her surroundings. "This is what I tried to stop from happening… Where is Magdalene?"

"Very far from here by now, I suspect," Desdemona croaked. The pain had dulled just a little but she knew she wouldn't be able to do this a hundred times in a row to free Kaori and the followers, let alone restore Belarius' damage. How far was he planning to go? He might have enough strength to lay Old Town in ruins, she thought with alarm. There was only one thing she could do. She slowly got to her feet as Cortex tried to console Verity, who was now gaping at the figure known as her father.

"Something frightening is about to happen. It might be hard, but please don't stop me. It's a matter of life and death, and I've made my choice." Desdemona looked at Cortex expecting that confused, wondrous expression she often had, but instead was met by a face of understanding and fear. "I can't promise that," she said.

"I know what I'm doing, Lucy," Desdemona said, momentarily forgetting to address Cortex by her Cure name.

"I know you do, you always seem to. But I can't promise that I won't try to interfere if you… If you get hurt."

Desdemona sighed and realised it was pointless. "Please try for me, then," she said as she stepped out in front of Belarius in the circle, now a dark silhouette framed by his green white flames.

"I have given you the chance to answer me," Desdemona began, "but you ignored me. I would have gladly helped you get your daughter back, but instead you gave into your anger. I consider you my dearest and oldest friend, but you have left me no choice."

She cleared her throat and began to cite the words. Every demon knew them, as they were the one thing they all feared. They were ancient words that had been cited again and again over the ages to drive out deceitful devils who had taken hold of beloved children or lead honest men and women astray. After only a dozen words Desdemona could feel her throat begin to burn, but she persisted. Behind her she heard sounds of bewilderment and fear as Belarius' followers were freed of his grip on their mind. The dark clouds began to lift ever so slightly. "Desdemona," she heard Kaori hiss behind her in shock. "You're smoking!"

The smoke coming off her own skin burned her eyes and as she blinked away painful tears, she moved on to the next holy verse, her body screaming at her to stop.

She couldn't restore the buildings Belarius had torn apart around them, but she could stop any more of his destruction. Here and there bits of concrete fell down around them and Cortex hurriedly cast a shield over the chapel. "Hey, it works again," Desdemona heard her exclaim to Verity.

Desdemona initially mistook the red glow she caught just at the edge of her sight for the glow of fire. When she felt that it seemed to exude warmth; not the stinging heat of a flame but rather a comforting warmth associated with happiness and hope, she realised what it was. There most definitely was real fire, and it was on her; she could feel it on her shoulders and heard it crackling in her ears as it burnt through her clothes, but the glow that she now realised was coming from her heart seemed to shield her from the pain. Where the words had become so painful to say she was choking them out, her throat now seemed clear again, and she continued more confidently.

By the time she finished the verses the entire cult had fled the ruins of the chapel, out of White Hill Community, scattering across Old Town just to get away from their rapture. Only Verity's grandparents remained, who had hidden behind their granddaughter and Cortex.

Though she should have known the moment she saw the shining light, the words that formed in her mind still surprised Desdemona. Though she just nearly immolated herself in an attempt to save one of her students and a friend and about a hundred deceitful cult members, she still couldn't fathom herself worthy of being something good. So when she spoke the words, they came out shaky and uncertain, unlike the clarity with which she had spoken the religious verses that nearly did her in.

" _Mirabilis Sanguis Kaibutsu."_

A pattern that resembled a summoning circle formed at Desdemona's feet. The moment it was finished, all the lines had been connected, a light shot up out of it at the heavens, enveloping Desdemona and blinding those around her, including Belarius who finally moved from his spot to shield his eyes.

The light struck the heart of the spiral high above them, and Cortex saw how it broke up the green light. The dark cloud began to dissipate, turning to vapour until it was no more. The sky went back to its normal deep blue colour, and the moon peeked out from a cloud, cold and ever present.

The light vanished and left a Cure in Desdemona's place. Cortex cheered. Kaori looked relieved, and Verity looked at her teacher with wonder, her cheeks still wet with fearful tears. Belarius took a step back. Despite his grand stature he looked half as intimidating as he had before.

Desdemona's hair had grown very long and was tied up into two elaborate buns that resembled roses. From them the rest of her hair flowed down into two pigtails, her deep red hair becoming more bright near the ends. Her shirt had turned into a neat white shirt with maroon coloured gloves covering the ends. Over the shirt she wore a corset with a keyhole, a bloodred gem dangling from her choker, shaped like an inverted heart, that seemed to pulse with life. Her skirt was also a deep red, though the inside was a shockingly bright shade instead. Most notably were her boots; they looked like they had been fashioned from blood, as if she had dipped her legs in it. Her eyes were golden, though still red at the core.

"I'll protect those in need, that is my promise. Cure Sanguine." She said it as if it came naturally. Then she shifted her gaze to Belarius and her eyes sparked.

"You! How could you!"

The clack of her heel as she set a step towards him echoed through the ruins of the chapel. Belarius jumped a little. Cortex noted that he looked a lot like a frightened dog. A large dog, and a strong one, like a Pitbull or a Bernese Mountaindog maybe, but still, a scared dog. It was hard to believe he was the same man who had been ready to destroy Old Town just moments before.

"I could slap you, and maybe I should," Cure Sanguine went on. "I hope I can strike your name off any record or ancient text I can find, because it's clear you can't handle your own cult! Look what all that power did with you!" she gestured around herself. Now the chapel walls had been largely destroyed Cortex could see most of the surrounding buildings had been broken down to similar levels. She could see the forest beyond the edge of the Community.

"They tricked me," Belarius said. His voice was still low, and he sounded resentful, but the power it once held was gone. He sounded like a regular man now. A very angry one.

"They did, and they are wrong for doing so," Sanguine said. "But look at her!" she pointed at Verity, who flinched. She tried to hide behind Cortex' shoulder and flinched again when she brushed up against her grandmother who had taken refuge behind her.

"Your own daughter is scared to death of you!"

Belarius turned his head to look at Verity. She stared back at him with frightened eyes. The colour had started to return to them, and the darkness was slowly fading from her face.

"I'm not angry with her," Belarius said, still looking at Verity. "She didn't choose this."

Sanguine tapped her foot. "Is that all you're going to say?"

Belarius coughed. It was such an outrageously human thing for him to do that Cortex burst into giggles momentarily. There was something very funny about a demon who had just been about to wipe away her hometown in anger clearing his throat awkwardly moments later.

"I would like to be there for her from now on. As a father. As was part of the pact you made with me seventeen years ago," he said, looking at Verity's grandparents with renewed fury. He blinked, and the fury was gone again. He composed himself. "Were they good to you," he asked his daughter.

"Yes, very good," her grandfather piped up. "She's never had a want for anything."

"We raised her as if she were our own," her grandmother added.

Belarius looked at Verity and couldn't get a clear read off her facial expression of whether her grandparents were telling the truth or not.

"I asked her," he said as he nodded at his daughter.

"I… I-" Verity stammered. "I got what I needed. It could have been… It could have been a lot worse," she said finally. Cortex frowned; that didn't sound very positive.

Verity's grandmother placed a hand on her shoulder, but it didn't look like she put it there to calm her grandchild. It looked more like she was laying claim on her.

"Where is her mother," Sanguine asked. She had joined Belarius side. To Cortex it looked like Sanguine was taller than she usually was, but she wasn't sure. Either way, she didn't look small standing next to Belarius, who was positively giantesque, even though she was several heads shorter than him. _Desdemona always has an intimidating aura_ , Cortex thought, and maybe it made her _feel_ taller, somehow.

"She left," Verity's grandmother said curtly. "We raised Verity since she was a baby."

"You said she abandoned me," Verity said quietly.

"She did," her grandfather replied with vitriol in his voice. "She was a traitor, she let us all down, she was selfish," he spat. Verity shook her grandmother's hand off her shoulder and shuffled away from them both, closer to Belarius but closer still to Cortex. She just didn't want to be so near her grandparents anymore.

"Don't talk to her that way!" Belarius boomed.

"Calm down Ari, this isn't a shouting contest," Sanguine sighed.

Belarius muttered an apology and cleared his throat again. "The pact is over. You will not get anything from me anymore. Verity…" He looked at his daughter, and his eyes softened. Cortex realised they had softened every time he had looked at her.

"You are free to go wherever you want. I understand you fear me, and that you likely don't want me anywhere close to you, and… And I'll respect that. It's the least I could do after how you've been used by your… your family."

Tears formed in Verity's eyes. "I don't know where to go," she said in a high voice. "I don't want to stay in the Community," she said, and she moved away a bit further, as if she feared one of them would lash out.

"I can make arrangements so you'll have a place to stay," Sanguine said. "I'm your teacher after all. I can pull some strings," she added.

"What about us?" Verity's grandfather asked. He got up, and pulled his wife up alongside him. "Our home is destroyed."

"Be glad that is the only thing that was destroyed this night," Sanguine said. "You built up this community, did you not? I'm sure you'll figure something out." She held an arm out to Verity, who reluctantly walked up to her. "I just have one bit of advice for you," Sanguine continued as she put an arm around Verity's shoulder protectively. "Stay away from Verity. You have done her enough harm by what you did seventeen years ago."

Verity's grandfather looked like he was about to explode, the tirade swirling in his chest almost visibly preparing to burst out. But all he managed was an exasperated huff, and he chose to storm out of the ruins, his grip firm on his wife's arm, without a word. Verity breathed a sigh of relief.

"I'm sorry I didn't help more," Cortex said, both to Sanguine and Verity. Before she could say anything else Verity ran to her and hugged her so suddenly she nearly fell down.

"Don't you apologize," Verity said. "You did what you could. And I'm so happy you came here to try and save me when he- When everything was getting destroyed."

Desdemona, who had figured out how to detransform, gave Belarius a small jab in the ribs with her elbow.

"And you too, Kaori," Verity added.

"Oh jeez," Kaori said, not quite used to being acknowledged by people outside of her dreamworld yet, and she blushed fiercely. "N-no problem."

Verity turned around and gave Desdemona an uncertain look. "I don't really know where I could go," she said.

"You could stay with us," Lucy (who had de-transformed too) said.

Desdemona shook her head. "We live in a one bedroom apartment with three people and a fairy already Lucy. I think Verity would probably like a place that's a bit less crowded."

"Maybe I could stay with Luke," Verity said. She avoided making eye contact with the demon who had fathered her. She swallowed. "I don't… I don't want to shut you out," she said to Belarius, not quite able to look him in the eyes yet, "but I'm not ready to get to know you, just yet, I think. I hope you understand."

Desdemona looked up at Belarius. She could tell he was hurt. "Of course, I completely understand. I'll stay in town, and… And once you're ready, I'll be there for you. And I'll be a good dad to you." He clenched his fists as if to enforce how determined he was to be the best father that ever was. "I know I look scary. I can tell you're frightened of me, but I promise you I wouldn't hurt a fly." Belarius blinked rapidly. Desdemona could tell he was getting emotional.

"Unless that fly made a pact with you and then proceeded not to stick to the terms," she said, her lips pulled into a grin.

"That's just how a pact works, you know that! You go mad with power after a while. I never intended for it to come to this."

The runes on Belarius' face flushed. To Desdemona he finally looked like he had when they were friends and regularly spent time together; the demonic rage inside him was gone. Belarius had always had the uncommon quality of looking very human without wearing a human disguise. It wasn't a physical thing, far from; with his giant stature, horns and oddly coloured limbs and face covered in runes; it was in the way he held himself.

Desdemona had always thought Belarius was too caring for a demon, as he was genuinely fond of humans. He helped her take care of any firstborn sacrifices she got for her contracts and he always treated them like they were his own. It was Desdemona's custom to wipe the child's memories of being raised by her and any other demon they had been in contact with, and several times Belarius had objected as the moment had arrived. _He always got too attached_ , she thought.

It was no wonder the price for a pact with him, which would ensure wealth and fame for the rest of the life of whoever paid the price, was a child of his own. A child he could raise and wouldn't have to give up once they got old enough to stand on their own feet. A son or daughter he could teach about the world, and who he would protect. When he had told Desdemona of it, she had laughed at him. "You're going to be used," she had warned him. "And what about the mother? Are you planning on joint custody with the entire cult?"

He had retorted that she just didn't get it, and after that they had lost contact. Belarius had not appeared when she had another firstborn to raise, and she wondered if he had gotten his cult. Shortly after she had been trapped in a book by Marlucy.

 _I suppose if Ari can be a father_ , _I can be a Pretty Cure_. She smirked.


	8. She Came From Outer Space

[AN: Hello! It's been a hot minute since the last update. I have no excuse except for "I just didn't write the thing until now". I also wanted to let you know I made some small changes to a previous chapter and an overall thing: In chapter 5 it was originally stated that the entirety of Rosabell's Court goes to school but I've decided I don't like that, so now it's just Griff, Coral and Magdalene. Lucy now also leans more to thinking she's sixteen instead of eighteen, though she's still not entirely sure. With the way she and her friends behave I thought it'd be a little better if she was a bit younger. I hope you like this new chapter, thanks for sticking with me!]

"That would've been very interesting if it had worked," Griff said as he faced the room filled with the members of Rosabell's court. The atmosphere in the room was one of slight disinterest, there was a lack of a sense of direction and it affected everyone. Magdalene's plan failing had killed any motivation they had for fulfilling Rosabell's wishes even more.

"I didn't expect that teacher would go so far as to set herself on fire to stop that demon," Magdalene sighed. "I knew there was something wrong with that cat when it suddenly appeared in Verity's room."

"It was a good effort," Child said. "Pretty fireworks, too." He smiled in his usual unsettling fashion, but nobody seemed to share his fond reminisce of past events.

"What if the destruction had reached the cathedral, did you think of that?" Coral piped up. "We could've gotten caught in the blast!"

"That's true," Magdalene said, without further elaboration.

"Well _I_ don't want to die," Coral grumbled.

"So there's two now, correct," Child said, trying to keep the conversation on track. "Cures, I mean."

Griff nodded. "Cure Cortex and Cure Sanguine."

"Actually, there's three," Magdalene corrected. "They have a little ghost girl living with them. She has a gem but she hasn't transformed yet. She's afraid to say the words out loud."

"What's a ghost got to fear," Coral interjected. "She's dead, she's got nothing to lose."

"Suppose being dead doesn't rid you of feelings of anxiety," Child said. He was petting one of his woodlice with the tip of his index finger. Coral gave him a disgusted look.

"Rosabell must be none too happy with this," Magdalene said, looking at Griff.

He shook his head. "My lady told me she's rather disappointed. She thinks a zombie shouldn't have been able to recruit even one other Cure, let alone two. Your effort was valiant, though, Magdalene. Nobody could have predicted Desdemona would put a stop to it."

These last words were not Rosabell's, they were Griff's own, but Magdalene didn't need to know that. Rosabell didn't really do compliments; Rosabell did fits of anger or bureaucratic approval, but that was about it.

"So what do we do now," Child said. Magdalene shrugged.

"I can't tell what Lucy is planning next. To be honest all of them seem rather uncertain of what to do with their powers, I haven't seen Sanguine use her magic at all since she's gotten the powers. Cortex mainly uses it for inane things. She still tries to magic the werewolves in the Volta mansion back to normal every day but it doesn't work, she's not strong enough. Rosabell still has the upper hand and frankly I'm not sure if Cortex and her ragtag band of misfits is going to be much of a threat at all."

"Well, we mustn't grow complacent," Child said in a mocking tone. He raised a challenging eyebrow at Griff. "Right?"

Griff thought over his words carefully. Frankly Rosabell hadn't seemed all that worried when he told her Magdalene's plan had failed.

"That demon could have destroyed the entire town," she had sighed. "I'm fond of Old Town, I don't want to see it laid in ruins. It reminds me of home." She looked wistful for a moment, then scoffed. "It was more amusing when it was full of zombies though. I miss watching them shuffle around." Griff tried to change the subject.

"Your Court is at a bit of a loss of what to do," he admitted. "And Child won't stop asking me why you never show up in person. You as in the duchess," he clarified. "None of them expect to see the great Rosabell in person."

"Oh, I will," said Rosabell with a wave of her hand. "When the time is right. Which might be very soon," she huffed, "to be frank I didn't think Lucy would get three Cures together so fast. Even if they don't look like much." She chortled. "A ghost and a contract demon, are you serious."

To Griff Rosabell's Court, which consisted of an alien child, a voodoo doll, a butler and a giant but surly spider, did not sound much more impressive, but he wouldn't dare mention that.

"I don't want the Court to know it's me," Rosabell said. "But if I show up as equal to them they're gonna treat me, well, like an _equal_ , and I don't think I can handle that."

She emphasized "equal" as if it was a dirty word. "The mystery of who I am and you as my servant gives me a powerful air," she explained.

"You're the witch of the night and the moon," Griff said, "You created half this world. I think you exude power even without the ruse."

Rosabell rolled her eyes. "Well, yes, but I don't want to look _that_ powerful. I want to see how my Courtiers act when they don't know I'm with them. I need to know if… If they're giving it their all."

 _She wants to spy on them_ , Griff thought. _She wants someone to step out of line_. He could see it in the playful glint in Rosabell's eyes. It was a dangerous glint. As difficult as the other Courtiers could be, he felt protective of them. Maybe some more than others, but he still didn't want Rosabell's wrath to be unleashed on any of them.

"Magdalene going out there to stop them is the first step," Rosabell said after a moment. "I want them all to do that. That includes you." She shot him a look, and for a moment Griff feared Rosabell would bring up Gwen, but she didn't. "I have some ideas in mind. Once I've got it all figured out, the duchess will join you for your nightly liaison." She smiled, but didn't look at Griff.

"Interfering with the Cures is the best thing we can do at the moment," Griff said to the Court. "Until the duchess joins us with more news."

"What do you want us to do," Child said. "I mean, I could throw sand in Lucy's eyes, I guess. Does that count as interfering? Or should we all try to summon wrathful demons or things of that level," he added.

"Less destruction of Old Town would be preferable," Griff said. "Whatever you can come up with."

"I think I know something," Coral said. This surprised everyone in the room, as Coral generally did not speak unless it was to complain. "And I don't need a demon or whatever to pull it off." She smiled a big toothy alien grin.

* * *

"Alright, settle down everyone." Mister Turan stacked some papers on his desk as he waited for the screen behind him to finish loading up.

"He seems nice, I think," Verity said to Lucy and Luke, her voice reduced to a whisper. "My dad, I mean. I don't get a bad feeling when I see him. Honestly I think there were more times I was afraid of my memaw and pepaw than him, isn't that weird?" She held her hands up to the side of her head with her index fingers pointing up. "Cos he's got the horns and stuff, and he's so tall. But last week me and Luke were in the grocery store and he was standing there in the dairy section looking at a carton of milk and I just thought; that don't look evil to me. And then-"

"You done, Verity? I don't want to interrupt anything," Mister Turan said loudly.

Verity slunk back into her seat with a mumbled "I'm sorry".

"We have a transfer today, she's joined us from class B." Mister Turan pointed at a girl sat in the middle of the classroom, though there was no need to point as she stood out well enough on her own. Her skin was purple and her hair was half pink and half blue. Her cheeks were covered in colourful plasters, as were her knees.

Lucy was astounded she had somehow missed this girl sitting in the same room as her; she must have been too invested in Verity's story.

The girl got up and made her way to the front of the class before Mister Turan could say anything more. When she turned around to face the class Lucy saw her eyes were bright gold and they almost seemed to glitter. She smiled and revealed two rows of pearly whites, all of them pointy but uneven. "Hello! My name is Coral. I don't have a last name because I'm from space," she said, excitedly gesturing to the ceiling on the word 'space', "and I hope you'll all treat me nicely. Let's be friends!"

"That was a very nice introduction," Mister Turan said, his eyebrows raised. He clearly had not expected Coral to go up to the front of the class. Judging from how she looked, however, he didn't think she would take it well if he told her her greeting was more fitting for a middle school class than a high school one. He figured she'd mustered up the confidence to get up to the front like that, and on top of that she wasn't even from the same planet. He hoped the other kids wouldn't pick on her for it. For a brief moment he debated why an alien would even go to school, then Desdemona snapped him out of it by cleared her throat to remind him he had a class to teach.

Coral sat back down. "Was that good," she whispered to the girl sat next to her. "I saw that's how they do it in a film."

The girl tried to stammer out an answer but Coral stopped listening before she managed to get a proper word out. "You're looking at me funny, I don't like that," Coral said dismissively.

"What's up with her," Verity whispered to Lucy and Luke.

* * *

The rest of the day proved to be a struggle for the class and every teacher who was subjected to Coral. She often interrupted a lecture to complain about how she didn't understand it, and ask why the teacher didn't explain everything more thoroughly because she was an alien and it was rude of them to assume she knew about human things.

"This is Maths," one teacher said. "It's logic. Just use your head."

Coral scoffed loudly at that and crossed her arms. "Oh my god, where I'm from its automatically calculated in your brain chip so you don't have to do this boring pointless stuff. This place is so backwards."

"But you just said you don't understa-" began one student, though he trailed off when Coral spun around in her seat to glare daggers at him.

After that the teacher kicked her out of the class. Lucy felt the atmosphere in the class instantly clear a little. She felt bad for Coral, but did think it'd be better for her if she was open to adapting a bit more. She had checked the remaining two gems shortly after Coral introduced herself, but to her surprise neither of them had reacted. Coral looked so outrageous she half expected her to be a shoe-in for being a Cure.

At lunch Lucy, Luke and Verity made their way to their usual spot, until Lucy noticed Coral from the corner of her eye. She was sitting by herself and looked forlorn.

Verity made an empathic tutting sound when she saw. "We should go sit with her," Lucy said. "She's new, she should feel welcome." She heard Luke protest behind her, but him and Verity still followed when she walked over and set her tray down across from Coral.

When Coral looked up Lucy saw a spark of recognition in her eyes, and she looked a little startled. _Must be the green skin_ , she thought. Then again, Coral didn't have a human skin colour herself… She waved away the thought and put on a toothy grin.

"How're you liking our class?" she asked.

"It's okay, I guess," Coral said. Now she was no longer sitting alone her posture had changed, she looked rather unimpressed now, leaning on one stubby purple hand with her cheek. "I want to be friends with everyone but I feel like people are making that kinda difficult. And the teachers are super unaccommodating, but I've had that problem from day one."

"Well, you are the only alien here, as far as we know," Luke said.

His tone was friendly, yet Coral looked as if he'd smacked her in the face. "Oh, so because it's just me I should just deal with it? Like I'm less than everyone else?"

"That is not what he meant I don't think," Verity said. The atmosphere had gone from slightly awkward to hostile within the second. "He's just saying teachers don't know how to properly include you yet. You're not the only one, you know, there's some other monsters who-"

"I am NOT a monster!"

For a moment the entire table went silent after Coral's shriek. People threw disturbed and annoyed looks at her before continuing their lunch; maybe shrieking before eating was normal where Coral was from.

"I didn't mean to offend," Verity said through gritted teeth. Lucy noticed a darkness creep up in the corner of Verity's eyes but as she let out a sigh and her shoulders slackened, it disappeared.

"Well, you did," Coral said. "And you don't have a say in whether I'm allowed to be offended or not."

Verity frowned. "I didn't say you weren't allowed to be- what does that even mean?" She looked around at Lucy and Luke for support, but neither of them really knew how to respond either. Why was Coral being so hostile when they were trying to do a nice thing for her?

"Do you want us to leave," Lucy said after a moment. She couldn't think of anything to say that wouldn't potentially result in Coral exploding again, and she wasn't sure this proposition would make her happy either.

Coral shrugged unhelpfully. "Do whatever."

They ended up staying, all three silently agreeing that getting up might cause another reaction in the lunchroom and they wanted to avoid drawing any more attention to themselves at all costs. They ate their lunch in silence. Lucy had not felt worse in her short life; she'd gladly redo all of Hachigoya High if it meant never having to sit through this terrible lunch again.

The afternoon classes were possibly worse than the morning ones. Coral didn't pipe up against teachers but instead hissed at her fellow students whenever she thought someone slighted her.

"You don't have to go to school, you know," Luke said at the end of the day. He, like many other students, had enough of Coral's antics. "You keep talking about how backwards this place is and how you hate everyone, so why don't you leave?"

"I've only been here for one day," Coral said with trembling voice, thick shiny tears rapidly forming in the corners of her eyes, "and you're already trying to bully me out of here." She pointed at Luke with one short finger. "You," she said. "I will get you." Without explaining what she meant with 'get', Coral stomped out of the room, muttering something about preferring Old Town when everyone was a zombie.

"Please protect me," Luke whispered to Lucy. "I don't want to find out what she is capable of."

* * *

"Give me some powers!" Coral demanded. She was back in the catacombs with the other Courtiers, except Griff. "Rosabell is almighty and stuff, right? Then she can give me some powers to blast this stupid boy into space!" She was shrieking so loudly the vampires on the floor above could hear her.

"I wish I was deaf," Child said to the pill bug on his hand.

"Don't you have hands, and feet? Can't you just beat him up like a normal person," Magdalene said. "Doesn't sound to me like you need powers to take care of him."

"He's friends with the zombie girl," Coral pouted. "If I just hit him she's gonna like, transform and kill me, or something."

"I don't think she would kill you," Magdalene said to no one in particular as Coral had resumed throwing a tantrum and Child was trying very hard to pretend he was deaf.

"I want a laser or something!" Coral shouted.

"A laser?" An unfamiliar voice rang out in the dungeon. It had spoken just two words but the coldness held within them instantly grabbed the attention of everyone in the room; even Coral had been momentarily silenced.

Before them stood Griff, the person that had spoken hidden behind him.

"My Lady Lune," Griff said as he took a step to the side and bowed his head.

Lady Lune had snow white hair, and snow white skin. She had a faint pink blush, and her eyelids were a deeper pink with a thin golden line decorating her eyelids. She wore an ankle-length and very elaborate dress and a matching hat that threw most of her face into shadow.

"You want a laser to fight a normal boy?" she continued.

It took Coral a moment to realize she was being addressed. "Y-yes. If Rosabell is all powerful I feel like, since I'm in her court and all, I should be allowed to put people in their place."

"I think you've got your priorities skewed," the Lady said. "Didn't Griff tell you what you should be focusing on?"

"Yeah, I know, the Cures and stuff, but-"

" _No_. No 'but'. You have been chosen by her for this purpose. You are to do her bidding." the Lady took a few steps towards Coral, her short heels dully echoing through the dungeon.

"Who are you to tell me what to do," Coral retorted, upset at being cut off. "You're not Rosabell, you're just a servant of hers just like everyone here."

"I am her friend," the Lady stated coolly.

"Coral, you should back off," Griff said from behind the Lady.

Coral did not back off. Instead she rolled her eyes. "So you don't even have an official rank, and you come in here with all this silly fanfare. If she's your friend, tell her: I! Want! A! Laser!" Coral stomped her foot to punctuate every word of her demand.

What happened next was hard for anyone to tell.

One moment, the Lady was still standing in front of Coral, then she moved very fast and ended up with her back towards her as Coral fell forward and smacked her face on the cold misshapen stone.

"I am the Lady of this house, matriarch of the vampires," the Lady said. "Any of my wishes Rosabell will grant, and I demand _respect_ ," she hissed.

She waited for Coral to move, but Coral stayed down with her face firmly planted on the floor. "You can get up now. Come on." She turned around and lightly kicked Coral's side. "I've got something for you." When Coral still didn't get up, Griff walked over to help her up. Her forehead had a giant welt on it, though aside from the welt and a shattered ego she looked to be fine. The Lady tutted at her. "Crybaby."

Coral shook Griff off. She didn't look the Lady in the eyes, instead opting to stare at her gleaming white shoes instead. The Lady reached in her handbag. "You said you wanted a laser. Here you go. It's not really a laser per se, it's something better." She pulled out what looked like a colourful water gun, something you might expect in a cartoon about space invaders.

"Consider it an apology gift, for showing you- For losing my temper." The Lady smiled in a way that could shatter mirrors. With a trembling hand, Coral took the laser gun (was it a laser gun?) and inspected it. "Rosabell wants you to have it. Feel free to use it however you like. I'd recommend not pointing it at allies, though."

The Lady turned to Magdalene and Child, who both flinched a little as she locked eyes with them. "Don't be jealous. Rosabell will have gifts for you, too."

"I think I can manage," Magdalene said carefully. Her two front legs were curled up slightly, a sign she was ready to defend herself if needed. "Lady Rosabell won't have to expend any of her powers on me."

The Lady smiled her horrible smile again. "You're so humble. Maybe you can teach your fellow Courtiers about it," she said scornfully.

 _This disguise is a complete disaster_ , Griff thought. If not for the fact that none of the other courtiers knew what Rosabell looked like -not even Child, who seemed to have forgotten- , they'd see right through her. Lady Lune was Rosabell through and through.

* * *

When Lucy, Luke and Verity walked to school the next day a nasty surprise was waiting for them just behind the front gate. Luke stopped in his tracks when he noticed her.

"Why is she standing there?" he said in a trembling voice.

"Who?" Verity peered at the gate, and let out a surprised "oh," when she noticed.

Lucy had seen her from the start but not seen the threat Luke apparently saw, especially since she was busy chatting with Nova, who had chosen to come along today. Or chatting _at_ Nova, really.

Coral was standing past the gate, and inspected every single student who passed her. Most of them paid her no mind, though some did seem to move a few inches to the right as they walked past her to get more space between them and her.

"She's totally waiting for me," Luke said and he hid behind Lucy again.

Verity rolled her eyes. "What is she gonna do, glare you to death?" Luke shot her a terrified look. "Maybe! We don't know if she's got laser eyes or something."

"If she did she'd probably have lasered half the school to ashes already," Verity joked.

"Um, guys," Lucy said. "I think she's noticed us."

Corals gaze had now left the students walking past her and was firmly focused on Luke's nose, the only part of his face visible from behind Lucy.

She pointed at it and began to shout: "I can see you! I was waiting for you!"

"I told you," Luke hissed, "Lucy, help me!"

"She's not doing anything," Lucy said, "what do you want me to do?"

Coral walked, or stomped rather, towards them now. Lucy put a defensive arm out over Luke.

"Don't hurt him."

Coral laughed and then pulled something out from behind her back. "He's hurt me way worse! This is just payback," she said. Luke peeked over Lucy's shoulder to see what Coral was holding and promptly sprinted away when he saw it was a gun.

Lucy had always been a bit slow and unfortunately this moment was no different, as she was still processing what it was Coral was holding when she took a shot at Luke. A bright beam of light in a colour that was hard to describe hit him square in the back.

"Luke!" Verity ran over to him but slowed her step when he didn't fall down as she expected. Instead he slowed down to a stumble, as if he was hit with a paintball pellet and not some crazy space laser that looked bright and fast enough to pierce through steel.

"Luke, are you alright?" Verity said.

Coral stood there, gun still in hand, giggling giddily at what she had done.

"What did you do to him?" Lucy said angrily, but before she could do anything Verity's shriek ripped her attention away.

Verity was backing away from Luke and turned to run away. Luke had turned around and was now stumbling towards them. His skin was green and his eyes were empty, his arms outstretched to Verity, grabbing at her backpack.

"There, now he can't be rude anymore," Coral scoffed, very chuffed with the results of her shot.

She didn't get to admire her work for long when she saw a light grow brighter and brighter next to her. _"Lux nova mirabilis!_ " She turned to Lucy next to her, and her eyes grew wide. The zombie girl was completely enveloped in a blaze of pink light. Though she was standing very close and felt no heat, Coral had the intense fear that if she tried to touch it she'd get burned to a crisp in mere seconds. She gasped. It looked _beautiful_.

"I'll bite anyone who stands in my way, Cure Cortex!" shouted the girl who had taken Lucy's place after the light faded. She was also beautiful. "Oh my wow," said Coral, still staring. "Nobody told me Cures would be pretty," she whispered.

"Help me!" Shouted Verity as zombie Luke was tugging on her backpack.

"Luke, stop that!" Cortex shouted as she pointed an accusing finger at her green-tinged friend.

"Oh that really stopped him," said Verity as she struggled to get her arms out of the straps of her backpack only to find herself more tangled. "Don't you have superpowers or something?!"

 _Oh yeah, I do_ , thought Cortex, and she summoned her wand. When she prepared to cast a spell however she noticed it didn't glow as it usually did. Upon closer inspection it appeared to be completely empty of any magical energy and was little more than a fancy stick at this moment.

"Oh no." She looked at Nova, desperation plain on her face. Coral, who was standing only a few feet away, had practically been forgotten. This suited her just fine because it allowed for her to keep gaping at Cortex.

"What do I do now?"

Nova tried to communicate to Lucy what to do as much as she could. She pointed wildly at Luke and made kicking and punching moves.

"Won't that hurt him?"

Nova looked at Lucy with a look beyond incredulity.

"What are you waiting for?" shrieked Verity.

"Oh yeah, he's threatening Verity," Cortex said. She reluctantly but steadily went over to her friends. Nova sighed and followed. It was difficult to have a forgetful zombie for a Cure partner, sometimes.

"If you don't stop now I'll… I'll do something!" shouted Cortex. Nova buried her face in her tiny hands.

When Luke got a hold of Verity's arm and bent down to bite her, Lucy finally felt a spark inside her that told her she had to act _now_ , and whereas she was at a loss for what to do just moments ago, she knew exactly what to do. Luke had inspired her.

She sprinted forwards towards Luke who was too braindead to focus on two things at once and decided Verity's protesting arm held priority over the pink menace flying at him.

Before he could do anything else his own arm was encased by a set of abnormally strong teeth, and he was pushed backwards onto the ground. He let go of Verity's bag and she went tumbling the other way. She scrambled away from the zombie pair, turning around only when she was safely out of their reach. She couldn't believe what just happened. _Did Cortex really just bite Luke…_?

Luke flailed his arm wildly has he wailed in annoyance - the bite didn't seem to hurt him much, he was more annoyed the full weight of Cortex' body made it impossible for him to get up again.

Cortex meanwhile struggled to get a hold of Luke's other arm in an effort to pin him to the ground. Luke made a grab for her face and a stray finger hit her in the eye. This sudden jab at the vulnerable tissue of her eye startled her so much she grabbed Luke by the face and pushed him down into the ground, cracking the concrete on impact. Cortex instantly let go and gasped in horror. "Oh no, I'm so sorry!"

But Luke seemed to be fine. His hair got pretty mussed up and his somewhat slack expression indicated he wasn't particularly excited about that but considering Cortex expected him to resemble a green cracked egg after the force she used pushing him down she was incredibly relieved.

Nova was hovering near Cortex' head and saying something and although Lucy still couldn't understand her, she gathered her increased power and the lack of fatal damage on her friend could be explained simply with "Precure magic".

When Luke tried to get up again she simply pushed him down with a single hand. Luke muttered something in protest but didn't seem too keen on putting up a fight and getting smashed into the concrete again.

"What do we do now," Cortex said to Nova.

"Maybe we should tie him up," offered Verity, still standing a safe distance away. "Maybe you can turn him back when your magic recharges. Oh wait, what about miss-"

"L-Lucy…?"

Desdemona was standing outside the gate to the school.

"...What are you doing?"

"My name is Cure Cortex now," said Cortex in an official tone. "And I am protecting the other students!" she tapped a hand on Luke under her, who grumbled in response.

Nova went over to Desdemona and tried to explain the situation via what looked like interpretive dance, and even though Desdemona thought she understood what the fairy was trying to get across, she didn't feel like it explained much of anything.

"Thank you for that," she said to Nova in a shaky voice. "Um, why… Why is Luke a zombie _again_?"

"She did that," Cortex said, and she turned around slightly to point at Coral, only to find that the alien girl had fled the scene. "Oh." She felt guilt for not being able to apprehend Coral, but if she hadn't acted fast Verity would've ended up with a nasty bite at the least.

"It was just… It was chaos," Verity sighed. "She's got this vendetta against Luke and she shot him with a raygun and now he's a zombie."

"A raygun," Desdemona repeated. Nova nodded furiously and mimicked shooting a gun with her hands, making a small "pew!" sound as she shot invisible rays at Luke.

"I was gonna turn him back, but I'm out of magic," Lucy said. She summoned her wand to demonstrate.

"I told you not to use your magic for interior decorating, look at- wait, that doesn't look empty to me," Desdemona said as she took a closer look. "It looks like it's halfway charged at least."

Cortex looked at her wand in confusion; Desdemona was right.

"But it was empty before, I swear."

Suddenly Luke bucked and threw Cortex off.

"Okay, let's talk about this later," she said as she scrambled to get to her feet before Luke could. She pointed her wand at him and yelled the first words that came to mind as he charged at her, and thankfully they appeared to be exactly the words she needed.

"Stella Chai Somnus! Like dawn on a new day, your curse is lifted!"

Cure Cortex drew a star with the tip of her wand, and with a flourish she drew a circle around it. It instantly filled with bright warm light, speckled with early morning stars. She swung her wand down, as if to fling the beautiful pentagram at Luke, and as it made impact with his body he instantly stopped his charge. For a moment he brightened, and then fell.

Cortex caught him in her arms and knelt down. Luke appeared to be unconscious, but his cheeks were no longer sunken in and his skin was its usual lively tan colour.

"That was amazing," Verity gaped. She checked Luke's forehead and breathed a sigh of relief. Cortex de-transformed with a loud but not unpleasant ringing sound, the magic of Cure Cortex fluttering away in small pink specks.

"Well she's surely not gonna come back. If shooting someone with a laser gun doesn't get you expelled I don't know what will," Verity said as Luke slowly came to.

"I don't think we've seen the last of her," Lucy said in a tone that was uncommonly serious for her. "She said she preferred Old Town when it was full of zombies. I have a bad feeling about how she got that gun in the first place."

* * *

"So after that fiasco I assume you're not going back to school," Child said to Coral. They were in the dungeon under the cathedral, with no sign of Griff or the frightening Lady Lune. Magdalene was somewhere in the dungeon, Child was quite sure, but she kept herself hidden at the moment.

Coral shook her head. She was pouring over a paper and a bunch of crayons she had acquired and only half paid attention to what Child was saying; she was guarded as Child had a penchant for trying to upset her and she didn't want to give him the pleasure of succeeding. "No, it was pretty awful. And I don't need to be enrolled to keep an eye on the Cures." She switched her purple crayon for an orange one and continued her little project.

"Oh also, it wasn't a fiasco. I found out Cure Cortex doesn't know how to fight and also that she looks really pretty." She coughed awkwardly when she realised she said that last part out loud.

"Her being unprepared is really useful information!" she shouted to cover up her blunder. Child winced.

"Fair enough," Child said as he backed away a little, in the event Coral chose to shout again. "But she cured him in the end, didn't she? That boy." Coral nodded.

"Yeah." She grabbed a dark purple crayon to make the outlines of her work stand out a little more. After that she assessed it in full. "I feel like this could be better," she said after a moment.

"What do you think?"

Child opened his mouth to say something about expecting her to elaborate a bit more on the fight of that day, but decided he didn't want to be yelled at again. "Are you gonna shout at me if you don't like my opinion," he said, then he realised a split second later Coral might very well yell at him over saying just that. Thankfully she didn't.

"I don't wanna know if you think it's pretty or not because it's not like you'd know. I mean, look at you." she gestured at all of Child. "So drab."

"Voodoo dolls and wood lice don't care for aesthetics," Child said flatly. "What do you want me to say then?"

"Do you think it needs more? Should I add something?" Coral held up her drawing.

"Erm… What is it supposed to be? I can tell from the hair it's supposed to be you, but… What exactly do you want an opinion on?"

Coral rolled her eyes and pointed at the clothes she'd drawn on the (slightly crude) drawing of herself. "The outfit! Do I look like a Precure? Because I'm gonna be a Precure, no matter what it takes."


End file.
